Passive Northridge Easily Succumbs to Bartow’s Bunch : Men’s basketball: Poor-shooting Matadors also tentative on boards in 84-62 loss to Alabama Birmingham.

If winning basketball games in Los Angeles was always this easy, Gene Bartow would still be coaching at UCLA.

Reeling from a 1-3 start, Bartow’s Alabama Birmingham team got well in a hurry against overmatched Cal State Northridge, defeating the Matadors, 84-62, Saturday night before 745 in the Northridge Gym.

For Northridge, a home sweet homecoming it was not.

Carlos Williams scored 30 points, Travis Harper added 21 and Rod Willie had 19 as the Blazers dealt Northridge its most lopsided defeat at home in the five seasons the Matadors have played at the NCAA Division I level.

Northridge (0-3) shot only 35% for the third game in a row, and for the second consecutive game the Matadors were paced in scoring by Ryan Martin, a reserve guard.

“If you’re not getting second shots or shots inside, that’s fairly typical for a team that lives on the perimeter,” Coach Pete Cassidy said of the Matadors’ shooting woes.

Martin scored 11 points. Eric Gray, another substitute, added 10. Peter Micelli, Northridge’s 6-foot-8 center, also scored 10 points, although he made only three of 13 field-goal attempts.

Alabama Birmingham shot 49.2%, which was good enough because the Blazers also pulled in 18 offensive rebounds--most of them in front of flat-footed Northridge players.

“We weren’t jumping after the ball,” Cassidy said. “We have to play with a lot more reckless abandon on defense, and especially on the boards.”

Williams, a 6-6 sophomore from Detroit, pulled down four of his five rebounds on the offensive end. The left-hander converted each of them into baskets on his way to a career-high point total.

“Tonight we were more in sync,” said Bartow, whose club had lost to College of Charleston, American University of Puerto Rico and Auburn. “We did what we needed to do defensively and overall looked more like a basketball team.”

Northridge seems to have that effect on opponents, though Bartow played diplomat afterward, complimenting the Matadors on how well they ran their offensive patterns and adding, “I think they’re going to win a lot of games.”

Frustration is fast becoming a problem, however, and the schedule doesn’t get much easier until February. Northridge has home games Tuesday against Cal State Long Beach and Friday against San Diego State before traveling for games against ninth-ranked Cincinnati and a good Xavier team.

“We’ve got to put a win together soon,” Micelli said. “And to win we have to be more fundamentally sound than the people we play.”

Cassidy hinted after the game that a shakeup in Northridge’s lineup might be in order.

Ruben Oronoz, a junior who was expected to add scoring punch, missed all four shots against the Blazers. He has made only nine of 28 field-goal attempts.

Mike Dorsey, who paced Northridge’s scoring in two exhibition games, was held to five points.