In Hawaii, Northridge Leis the Groundwork

Nothing like waking up in Hawaii without a care in the world.

That’s how the Cal State Northridge basketball team felt Saturday, a day after winning the PowerBar Invitational with a 75-59 victory over Coppin State.

Northridge (5-2) opened the tournament by beating Hawaii, 89-79, Thursday and has a four-game winning streak.

The Matadors spent the day doing the usual tourist stuff, snorkeling and taking a tour of Pearl Harbor. But they return to the mainland today with something more enduring than flower leis--the school’s first tournament title since 1983.

“We have a lot of games to play but if you take a snapshot in time, this experience was very important to our program,” Coach Bobby Braswell said. “To go away from home and win a championship and beat the home team is huge.”

The victories were very different.

Against Hawaii, Northridge rebounded from a 13-point halftime deficit and scored 61 points in the second half.

Against Coppin State, Northridge built to a 26-14 lead and never wavered.

The opponents weren’t patsies, either. Hawaii had 21 victories each of the last two seasons, and Coppin State made the NCAA Tournament the last two years.

Is Northridge on the brink of becoming a 20-victory team that could qualify for the tournament?

“When you take over a program, the first thing you have to do is change attitudes about how to win,” said Braswell, who is in his third season.

“It’s not easy to do. We’ve lost a lot of close games the past two years. I hope now we’ve graduated from that point.

“It’s one thing to say that if we compete and play unselfishly we’ll win, but now we have the experience of doing it.”

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Tournament most valuable player Brian Heinle scored 19 points in each game and had a career-high 13 rebounds against Coppin State.

Heinle, a sophomore center, leads Northridge with a 12.9 scoring average.

Forward Andre Larry, who scored 17 against Coppin State after making only one shot against Hawaii, made the all-tournament team along with Fred Warrick of Coppin State, Anton Reese of Georgia State and Mike Robinson of Hawaii.

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Carl Holmes, a sophomore guard and the nephew of Braswell, took on an additional responsibility in Hawaii.

“He’s Steven Spielberg,” Braswell said. “Carl has the video camera going and he’s documenting the entire trip.”