Northridge’s 88-75 Victory Not Half Bad : Basketball: Matadors run off to 21-point intermission lead but can’t keep up the pace for 40 minutes against Seattle.

Optimist or skeptic?

Pete Cassidy, Cal State Northridge’s basketball coach, had his choice of roles to play after the Matadors downed Seattle University, 88-75, in a nonconference game before 504 fans Saturday night.

Given the choice, he picked a little of both.

Moreover, he turned realist.

“Well, we won,” he said.

And by 13 points, the same spread Seattle was beaten by UCLA-slayer Oregon earlier this season. Of course, Cal State Bakersfield, an NCAA Division II outfit, beat the Chieftains (2-9) by 19 on Friday night.

Northridge (3-8), ignited by the play of Mike Dorsey and Eric Gray, ran off to a 50-29 halftime lead.

Let’s see, that means Seattle won the second half . . . by eight points.

“We played with a lot of emotion,” Cassidy said of Northridge’s effort in the first 20 minutes. “Unfortunately, we didn’t duplicate that in the second half.”

The absence of Dorsey, a junior forward, probably contributed to that. He picked up his fourth foul with 13:32 to play and sat out the next nine minutes.

Gray just couldn’t keep up the pace. He scored 10 of his 13 points in a two-minute span of the first half.

Dorsey finished with 24 points against his former team. He played for Seattle as a freshman, then transferred to Los Angeles City College.

Though he admitted feeling “a little extra edge,” against his former teammates, Dorsey, who scored 14 points in an eight-minute segment of the first half, said he was more concerned about his current team.

Northridge had lost five in a row.

“It was important for us as a team,” Dorsey said. “We needed to come out and play harder, and we did.”

For a half, anyway.

Seattle, sparked by three consecutive three-point baskets from Mychal Brown, opened the second half with an 18-6 surge.

Brown scored 13 of his 17 points in the second half, when Seattle made 60.6% of its shots. Jared Robinson had 18 points for the Chieftains.

Northridge withstood Seattle’s first charge by answering with a 13-4 burst.

Trenton Cross shredded Seattle’s full-court press and scored on a pair of drives. Martin, who had 14 points, hit three jump shots, including a three-pointer.

Northridge led by 16 points with 6 1/2 minutes to play, but was outscored, 11-2, over the next three minutes.

However, Dorsey returned to score four quick points and Seattle got no closer.