Northridge Upset Bid Falls Short at Nevada Las Vegas

No miracle this time for Cal State Northridge. But the Matadors made it close.

Jermaine Lewis’ free throw with 3.1 seconds to play lifted Nevada Las Vegas to a 70-69 victory over the upset-minded Matadors before 11,123 Saturday night at Thomas & Mack Center.

Northridge (2-1), which made national headlines Tuesday with a 78-74 victory over UCLA at Pauley Pavilion, nearly pulled off a second shocker in as many games, but Brian Heinle’s three-point attempt at the buzzer fell short.

Heinle, a 6-foot-9 center, scored a game-high 32 points and led the Matadors’ inside game while forward Jeff Parris spent most of the game on the bench in foul trouble.

Had Heinle connected, it would have given him a career high and might have earned Northridge some votes in the Associated Press top 25 poll. Instead, the Matadors were left to stress positives.

“They gotta be feeling good about themselves,” Northridge Coach Bobby Braswell said. “We had a chance to win this thing or send it into overtime, but we didn’t. Our guys are taking it hard, and I’m glad they are.”

Parris, who scored a career-high 27 points against UCLA, had only seven points, all in the second half, and fouled out with 2:08 to play and the Runnin’ Rebels leading, 66-62.

With a little more than seven minutes to play, Parris returned with four fouls and UNLV (3-2) leading, 56-51. Northridge pared UNLV’s lead to 69-66 before Marco McCain’s three-point basket evened the score with nine seconds to play.

Lewis, who had 14 points and was among four players in double figures for UNLV, missed his first free throw in the final seconds and swished the second.

Dalron Johnson led UNLV with 18 points. Center Kaspars Kambala had 10.

Heinle gathered an inbounds pass with 2.2 seconds to play and released the ball in traffic.

“I got off the shot we wanted, it just didn’t go in,” Heinle said. “We wanted to come in and prove that it was no fluke against UCLA.”

But Northridge didn’t seem to be the same team it was against UCLA. At least not without Parris.

Parris collected two fouls early and had no points in the first half.

“If they’re going to call them like that, I guess I’ll have to adjust,” Parris said. “I’m not out there fouling people on purpose. That’s just the way I always play.”

Heinle also led Northridge with 11 rebounds. UNLV outrebounded Northridge, 47-46.

“We need to have Jeff on the floor,” Heinle said. “We’re a better team when we have him out there. He gets in foul trouble and we’re going to have to deal with that.”

“I don’t think they gave us anything unexpected,” Kambala said. “Every time I had the ball, they had guys on me. We definitely didn’t overlook them. They came in and gave us a game and we were ready for that.”