Stepping Up, Northridge Stepped On

Stepping on even the bottom rungs of the Pacific 10 Conference ladder will have to wait at least a year for Cal State Northridge.

Inconsistent shooting, coupled with persistent turnovers and fouls, kept the Matadors looking up at Oregon State throughout a 91-79 loss Thursday night before 6,249 at Gill Coliseum.

Northridge (0-2) opened with a six-point loss at Arizona State on Sunday, and must wait until hosting Pepperdine on Nov. 29 to begin any move in the right direction.

Matador Coach Bobby Braswell, for one, is grateful for the break.

“We need it,” he said. “We have a lot to work on. If we can learn to make our home court as difficult to play on as these teams made it for us, these lessons will have been worth it.”

Playing without senior forward Mike O’Quinn, suspended by Braswell for the game because of an incident at practice Tuesday, Northridge made only 39% of its shots and committed 32 turnovers and 25 personal fouls.

Forward Jeff Parris and guard Derrick Higgins fouled out.

Higgins, the leading scorer last season, was reduced to 12 minutes because of foul trouble and scored only six points.

Senior forward Kevin Taylor played only 21 minutes because of early fouls and scored three points.

“We missed them in there, especially on defense,” said guard Greg Minor, who scored 27 points for Northridge.

Except for about one minute midway through the first half when Northridge led, 20-19, Oregon State (1-0) never trailed. A 46-37 halftime lead was extended to 61-40 with 13:32 to play.

A three-point basket by Trenton Cross--the senior guard’s first field goal this season--accounted for Northridge’s only points of the second half until Minor scored eight in a row to pull the Matadors to within 61-48 with 11:34 to play.

Oregon State’s Corey Benjamin, an All-Pac 10 freshman last season when the Beavers were 7-20, took control, scoring 17 of his 23 points in the second half.

Sophomore guard Ron Grady had 25 points and 10 rebounds for Oregon State.

The Beavers made 55% of their shots and had 10 more baskets than Northridge. The Matadors forced 31 turnovers.

“Our defense was better than it was against Arizona State,” Braswell said. “They got some easy shots but we forced a lot of mistakes. And a lot of our mistakes were errors of enthusiasm.”

Considering they had 18 turnovers, 13 fouls and made 40.7% of their shots in the first half, the Matadors were fortunate to trail by only nine. Besides Minor, who had 13 points, the only effective Northridge players in the half were freshmen Brian Heinle and Carl Holmes, both products of high schools in nearby Eugene.

Heinle had eight points and five rebounds in the half and finished with 12 points and six rebounds.

“Obviously we didn’t play well,” Braswell said. “We played hard, but not smart.”

Matador notes

Northridge originally was scheduled to play Oregon and Oregon State on this trip, but the Ducks’ first-year Coach, Ernie Kent, scrapped the game soon after he took over because Northridge Coach Bobby Braswell also was a finalist for the Oregon job. “Give me a year to establish my program and I’ll play [Northridge],” Kent said. “Down the road, oh yeah, we’d play them.” Braswell, an Oregon assistant for four years before coming to Northridge last season, said he wants to play both Oregon schools every year. . . . Northridge is 1-20 against Pac-10 opponents, the only victory coming in 1995 against Cal. . . . The Sporting News rated Northridge No. 137 among the 308 Division I teams and picked the Matadors to finish second in the Big Sky Conference behind Northern Arizona.