With Hard Road Ahead, Matadors Have Easy Time

So the opponent was only a rag-tag traveling team, with special emphasis on traveling.

Cal State Northridge’s 113-85 victory over The Son’s Blue Angels on Tuesday night in an exhibition at Northridge was a confidence boost heading into the season-opener Saturday at Long Beach State.

Northridge took an 11-0 lead, never trailed and put up numbers that stand out in a box score.

But the most telling number might have been the 10 traveling violations in the first half called against the Blue Angels, a collection of former college players whose best games are definitely behind them.

They could only walk while the Matadors ran. And ran. And ran.

The Blue Angels committed 30 turnovers and were outrebounded, 54-37.

“They weren’t very good and a game like this is hard to judge as a coach,” said Bobby Braswell, the Northridge coach.

“There were areas to be pleased with, but in the locker room our guys were getting on each other about the very things I was going to talk about. I didn’t have to say much.”

The plus side of the ledger included 19 points by reserve guard Greg Minor, who also led the Matadors in scoring in an exhibition victory last week. Minor hit seven of 10 shots, including three of six three-pointers.

“My job is to come in and give us a quick spark,” said Minor, a junior from Canyon High.

The job of point guards Jason Crowe and Markus Carr is to get the ball to the hot shooter and both did it well. They each had nine assists and combined for only five turnovers.

Rico Harris, a 6-foot-9 forward, dominated the boards and displayed sound moves around the basket, scoring 17 points and grabbing 15 rebounds in only 24 minutes.

Forward Jeffrey Parris made five of six shots and scored 16 points, and Derrick Higgins had 14 on seven-of-11 shooting. The performance of Higgins, who missed most of last season with a broken foot, encouraged Braswell.

“I’m pleased with the progress Derrick has made,” Braswell said. “His medium-range shot is falling now.”

Forward Andre Larry had 12 points and guard Carl Holmes added 11 for Northridge.

Northridge shot 51.8%, including 64.1% in the second half.

Don’t expect the Matadors to dwell on their gaudy statistics. The opener at Long Beach will be followed Tuesday by a game at Tennessee, a team ranked in the top 10 of several polls.

“These first two games will be a chance to let our presence be known,” Harris said. “We want to show right away that we are a contending team and not just another Northridge team.”