Northridge Finds the Right Zone to Cure Road Woes : Basketball: Matadors abandon customary man-to-man defense and win away from home for first time in nearly a year.

Coach Pete Cassidy of Cal State Northridge didn’t agonize long over a game plan for South Carolina State, the Matadors’ consolation-game opponent Saturday in the Tennessee-Chattanooga tournament.

In watching the Bulldogs’ lose to Tennessee-Chattanooga the night before, Cassidy quickly surmised two things about the Bulldogs: They were quicker than the Matadors, but they probably wouldn’t set any field-goal percentage records. Shooting isn’t their strong suit.

Those two facts spelled one thing: zone defense.

Abandoning their customary man-to-man defense, the Matadors (3-8) zoned the Bulldogs well enough for a 64-59 victory, snapping a nine-game road losing streak dating to last February.

“It was a great coaching move,” South Carolina State Coach Cy Lawrence said as he gazed over a stat sheet that showed his team (4-4) shot only 31%. “It was a surprise to us, but we just didn’t have the maturity to slow down and try to adjust.”

That was fine with Cassidy, who stood ready to scrap the zone at a moment’s notice but didn’t have to.

“The good thing about trying different [defenses] is that you can always get out of them if they aren’t working,” Cassidy said. “We play a lot of man, but we’ve been putting in some work on our zones. It kept them out of sync, so we stayed in it the whole way.”

It didn’t hurt the Matadors’ cause that they shot much better than in their opening-round loss to Samford, a game Cassidy called “a complete disaster.”

Still without leading scorer and rebounder Damion Morbley, who was left home because of academic problems, Northridge spread the scoring load around. Five players scored in a 15-5 run that began midway through the first half and ended with the Matadors ahead, 32-22, with 2 minutes 7 seconds left before intermission.

Gerald Rhoden finished with 17 points, making five of six from the field. Ruben Oronoz added 11 points.

“Coach told us to come out and play relaxed tonight,” said guard Trenton Cross, who had 11 points and a game-high 10 assists. “We got some shots to fall early and that seemed to steady us and help our confidence.”

So much so that Northridge was able to get a large enough lead to withstand a late South Carolina State surge. The Bulldogs made four three-point baskets in the final three minutes, the last cutting the Matadors’ lead to 63-59 with 59 seconds left.

“I’m happy for our guys that we were able to pull it out,” Cassidy said. “This was a long way to travel to lose two games. I’m very pleased with the way we bounced back from the night before.”