Northridge’s 7-Game Streak Is Homemade

There’s little room for home improvement by the Cal State Northridge basketball team. So far, anyway.

The Matadors ended a two-game losing streak Thursday night the best way they know how--by playing at home, where they are 7-0--with a 73-63 victory over Montana State before 1,029 at the Matadome.

Northridge (11-5, 3-2 in conference play) pulled away in the second half of a close game, thanks to inspired play by Andre Larry and increased intensity beneath the basket.

Larry, a senior forward, scored 17 of his 21 points in the second half, including nine during a 12-2 run that enabled the Matadors to take a 58-48 lead with nine minutes to play.

Northridge, which lost games last week at Portland State and Eastern Washington, seemed to be in danger of dropping a third consecutive game against the smaller Bobcats (10-7, 2-2).

Trailing, 36-34, at the half, Montana State twice pulled even and twice took one-point leads early in the second half.

Before the Larry-led charge, Northridge missed consecutive three-point shots by Markus Carr, Marco McCain and Brian Heinle.

Northridge made only three of 15 from three-point range, including two of nine in the first half.

Equally disturbing to Coach Bobby Braswell was the Bobcats’ 23-13 edge in rebounds after one half.

“I was a little vocal at halftime about those statistics,” Braswell said. “No way in conference can you give an opponent second or third shots like we did.”

Larry was perturbed with his own performance. Ordinarily a starter, Larry began the game on the bench as punishment for arriving late to practice this week. Larry finished a lackluster first half with four points and no rebounds.

Larry turned it up to finish with 21 points and eight rebounds.

“In the first half, I just wasn’t aggressive,” Larry said. “I was just standing around. I heard about some stats at halftime and I didn’t have anything. That gets to me when I’m not producing.”

The Matadors, several of whom were members of last year’s team, took a measure of revenge against Montana State. The Bobcats defeated Northridge, 91-90, last season in the opening round of the Big Sky tournament.

“That was one of the things on our mind,” Larry said. “We just knew this week, that with all of the work that we put in, they weren’t going to beat us.”

Larry’s only three-point basket came during Northridge’s decisive run, a swish from the corner that gave the Matadors a 56-48 lead.

On the Matadors’ next possession, Larry rebounded a missed three-point shot by McCain and made a dunk to extend the lead to 10 points.

Rolle had 16 points and seven rebounds, and Heinle had 12 points and seven rebounds. With Larry, they had only seven rebounds in the first half.

Northridge outrebounded the Bobcats, 37-36.

“Their big guys just end up getting a lot of offensive and defensive rebounds,” forward Justin Brown of Montana State said. “Larry hurt us inside and outside. And then he hit that three.”

Montana State led only briefly in the first half, taking a 30-28 lead on Pete Conway’s jump shot.

Northridge led 26-17 after a basket by Rolle, but a zero-for-5 slump allowed the Bobcats to close the gap.