Northridge Is Finished After Making Fast Start

It’s not time for the Cal State Northridge basketball team to panic, but it’s close.

“We’ve got to do something,” point guard Trenton Cross said after the Matadors lost, 94-67, to UC Santa Barbara in a nonconference game Tuesday night in front of 2,089 at the Thunderdome.

“We just keep doing the same [stuff],” Cross said. “Something’s got to happen, with the team or the coach or something. We just keep beating ourselves.”

The Matadors (2-6) played their worst game of the season. Only a strong effort from the reserves in garbage time prevented their 39% shooting from being even more dismal.

“The guys who played at the end showed a helluva lot more intensity and concern and awareness than the guys who started,” said Pete Cassidy, Northridge coach.

“Unless we can play with a lot more emotion and start sharing the ball and setting screens, not much is going to happen.”

The Matadors played poorly, but the Gauchos (3-3) also played well. UCSB made 52% of its shots, including 57% in the second half. The Gauchos also were deadly from three-point range, making 13 of 29 from beyond the arc.

Guard Lelan McDougal scored 27 points. It was his fifth consecutive game leading the Gauchos in scoring, and fourth time with 20 or more points.

“No disrespect to them, but they weren’t as good as we made them look,” Cross said. “It was just a lack of hustle and effort. . . . We made them look like North Carolina.”

Northridge played well for about the first seven minutes, which was a bad sign. The Matadors’ two victories have come in the games in which they had their worst starts.

The Matadors were setting up on offense and getting good shots inside. Damion Morbley and Cross, who converted three acrobatic driving layups, played well early.

Morbley finished with 14 points, as did forward Josh Willis.

But it all fell apart soon enough. Perhaps the sign that things would stop going Northridge’s way came when Cross appeared to hit another beautiful driving layup while drawing a foul, but he was called for charging, wiping out the basket.

That play came in the middle of an ugly series during which everything seemed to go the Gauchos’ way.

For a five-minute span, the Matadors did not score.

Complicating matters, they couldn’t rebound. Northridge would miss its one shot, then head down the floor and watch the Gauchos put up as many shots as it took to score.

UCSB outscored Northridge, 33-13, during the final 13 minutes of the half, turning a 13-12 lead into a 46-25 halftime margin and all but guaranteeing the Matadors’ eighth consecutive loss on the road.

The Gauchos came out of the locker room and continued where they left off, building the lead to ridiculous proportions. As the lead ballooned, the teams emptied their benches and the game took on a let’s-get-this-over-with atmosphere.

“There are a lot of emotions right now,” Cross said. “It’s hard to say how I really feel because I don’t want to create any controversy.”

* PEPPERDINE LOSES: C2

* DIGEST: C2