Northridge Can’t Shake the Chills : College basketball: McLinn faces long, cold winter as Matadors (0-4) lose to Southwest Missouri State, 59-43.

If the Cal State Northridge basketball team doesn’t warm up a little, Brooklyn McLinn might freeze.

The Matadors’ senior guard has promised teammates that he will keep his head shaven until they snap out of their shooting funk and finally win a game.

After Northridge dropped to 0-4 by falling, 59-43, to Southwest Missouri State on Friday in the first round of the Bears’ tournament, McLinn was fretting his commitment.

“It might be a long, cold-head season,” he said.

Johnny Murdock scored 20 points for Southwest Missouri, which shot only 40% but outrebounded Northridge, 53-30.

“We shot 28% and got killed on the boards,” Matador Coach Pete Cassidy said. “That makes for a long night.”

Southwest Missouri (3-0) will meet Texas Tech (1-1), a 70-61 winner over Central Michigan, in the tournament championship game tonight at 6 p.m. PST.

Northridge will play Central Michigan (0-3) at 4.

The Matadors are playing so poorly, however, that even the prospect of playing a lesser opponent is not heartening.

“We’ll play to the level of the competition,” McLinn sniffed sourly. “We’d play an elementary school right now and it’d be a close game.”

Southwest Missouri certainly is much better than that. The Bears are among the most consistent winners in Division I basketball with eight consecutive seasons of at least 20 victories and a postseason appearance.

The only major-college teams in the nation who can match that record are Duke, North Carolina and Oklahoma.

“I know our guys are frustrated,” Cassidy said. “We’re a little outhorsed right now. It shows we have a ways to go recruiting-wise.

“If we get some more of those type of athletes, it could be fun.”

But for now, basketball is anything but fun for Northridge.

McLinn, a 6-foot guard, could not even enjoy his career-high eight rebounds.

“You know things are bad when I lead the team in rebounding,” he said.

Chris Yard led Northridge with 11 points and point guard Andre Chevalier, returning to action after missing a game with a sore left foot, added 10.

Chevalier, who played 35 minutes despite being at less than full strength, also tied a school record with seven steals, including six in the second half.

Northridge had 13 steals among Southwest Missouri’s 21 turnovers. But then defense is not the Matadors problem.

Shooting is.

Or, as Cassidy succinctly put it, “Our shooters are not putting them down.”

Chevalier and Peter Micelli, Northridge’s top returning scorers, were a combined five for 18.

McLinn was two for eight--his only two baskets coming from three-point range within a minute of each other.

Murdock, a junior who led the Missouri Valley Conference in scoring last season, made eight of 16 shots, including four of eight from three-point range. Ten Bears scored, but Murdock was the only one to reach double figures.

Forward Clint Thomas and center Tom Schellemans led Southwest Missouri in rebounds with eight each.