Matadors’ Improvement Clear to Gauchos

Cal State Northridge continued to bask in the glow of its new-found prosperity Monday night, but first-year Coach Bobby Braswell made it clear he hasn’t let success go to his head.

“Let’s not forget who we are,” Braswell said. “We’re not talking about us being UCLA.”

No, but the Matadors haven’t been playing much like a typical Northridge team either. Just ask UC Santa Barbara. Northridge, which lost by 27 points to the Gauchos last season, again showed it has come a long way with a 75-58 nonconference victory before 593 at Northridge.

Winning three games in a row for the first time since 1993, the Matadors (4-5) harassed Santa Barbara (4-4) into 19 turnovers and 42% shooting with an aggressive man-to-man defense and had four players score in double figures. Suddenly, Sunday’s game at Iowa doesn’t seem like such a mismatch.

“At one point in the year, I wasn’t looking forward to that trip,” Braswell said. “We have nothing to lose because no one expects us to win.”

Point guard Lucky Grundy led the Matadors with 13 points and six assists.

Northridge built an 11-point halftime lead, extended it to 18 midway through the second half and led by as many as 20 down the stretch.

Northridge shot 54% (27 of 50) and had a season-low 13 turnovers.

Raymond Tutt led Santa Barbara with 13 points.