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Sports

TONIGHT’S GAMES

By STEVE HENSON
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The Matadors made a strong recovery from two road losses, pounding Pepperdine, 81-66, in their home opener Saturday. Northridge’s pressure defense held the Waves to 38.9% shooting and forced 17 turnovers. Offensively, the Matadors displayed the balance and consistency Coach Bobby Braswell wants: five players scored in double figures and Northridge went on a 23-2 run midway through the second half to turn a one-point deficit into a 20-point lead. Two returning starters, Derrick Higgins and Trenton Cross, made their first real contributions this season, scoring 17 and 12 points, respectively. San Diego was defeated by Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, 82-81, Saturday. More interesting to Northridge is the Toreros’ 73-68 victory over Northern Arizona last week. Northern Arizona is favored to win the Big Sky Conference and Northridge should be a strong contender. San Diego forward Ryan Williams averages 18.8 points and 7.8 rebounds.

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Steve Henson

Steve Henson is a reporter with the Fast Break sports team at the Los Angeles Times. He previously served as an assistant editor and reporter in the Sports department. Henson was a leader in digital-only newsrooms from 2007-19 as a senior editor and columnist at Yahoo Sports and as senior editor at the USA Today Sports Media Group. This is his second stint at The Times, having covered the Dodgers and UCLA as well as doing enterprise, investigative and features writing from 1985-2007. Henson was awarded first place in sports features in 2021 by the L.A. Press Club and has been honored several times by the Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) and also by the California News Publishers Assn., the Football Writers Assn. of America and U.S. Basketball Writers Assn.

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