Northridge Comes Up a Bit Short : Basketball: Micelli a no-show and Southern Utah takes advantage of his absence in middle, 75-72.

There were flowers for the moms, a special introduction for the players.

Seniors night at the Cal State Northridge basketball game.

Senior Peter Micelli was pictured on the cover of the game program.

Good thing Northridge fans had that picture. Otherwise they might have forgotten what he looked like.

Micelli didn’t show up, leaving coaches and teammates to assume he must have been caught up in the celebration of his sister’s afternoon wedding in Los Angeles.

There would be no celebrating for Micelli’s teammates, who were left at the altar by their captain.

Southern Utah erased a 17-point second-half deficit and surged past Northridge, 75-72, to clinch a tie for the American West Conference title.

The difference: Southern Utah had its senior center, Sean Allen.

Allen grabbed 11 rebounds and scored 22 points, including 14 in the second half as the Thunderbirds won for only the second time in 10 games on the road.

Southern Utah (13-10, 4-0) has road games this week against Cal State Sacramento and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

Northridge (7-17, 4-2) completed its conference schedule.

For another shot at Southern Utah, Northridge will have to win its first game in the conference tournament--probably against Sacramento--March 10 at the Centrum in Cedar City, Utah.

Presumably, Micelli by then will be back with the Matadors.

Ryan Martin, Micelli’s housemate, close friend and fellow senior, said Micelli warned Northridge coaches long ago that there was a chance he would miss the game.

“I know it hurt our team, but it’s something he told the coaches from the get-go that he had to be there,” Martin said. Micelli, a 6-foot-8 post player, averages 10.7 points and 4.8 rebounds.

Asked if his loss might have been the difference in the game, Northridge Coach Pete Cassidy lamented, “We’ll never know, will we? When we talked he said he would be here. Whatever unforeseen that happened since then I don’t know.”

Southern Utah’s comeback was almost as surprising as Micelli’s absence.

A rebound basket by Mike Dorsey seven seconds into the second half gave Northridge its biggest lead, 46-29.

Southern Utah then ran off nine consecutive points, starting a comeback that culminated when Daryl Christopher sank a three-point basket to tie the score, 61-61, with 7 minutes 10 seconds left.

A rebound basket by Allen with 1:42 remaining vaulted Southern Utah into the lead for good, 71-70. His layup 40 seconds later made it 73-70.

Keith Berard added two free throws with 40 seconds left.

Trenton Cross and Ryan Martin missed three-point shots in the final 10 seconds for Northridge.

Southern Utah converted 11 of 24 three-point shots, improving its Division I-best accuracy from three-point range to 43.5%.

Dorsey had 16 points and eight rebounds for Northridge.