Northridge Wins, 62-54

Cal State Northridge used its pressure defense to swarm Utah State in the first half, then relied on some grit in the closing moments to pull out a 62-54 Big West Conference victory before 1,513 at Northridge on Saturday.

Northridge (12-15, 11-7) won its fourth in a row and denied Utah State the conference title outright. The Aggies (21-6, 13-5) will share the regular-season championship with UC Irvine, but will be the top seed when the tournament begins Thursday at the Anaheim Convention Center.

The Matadors will finish in a tie for third.

Northridge took a 25-5 lead with a disarming full-court trap that confused Utah State. The Aggies had 20 turnovers in the first half--eight in the first six minutes--and finished with a season-high 25.

Utah State pulled within one on Ronnie Ross’ three-pointer with 5:37 remaining. But the Matadors got a key basket from Ian Boylan for a 56-50 lead, and they made six of eight free throws in the final 1:17 to close out one of their biggest victories of the season.

Boylan had a game-high 16 points and Markus Carr had 14 points and seven assists.

Eric Stephens

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Cal State Fullerton 64, Cal Poly 62--Brandon Campbell scored a career-high 28 points for the Titans (5-22) at San Luis Obispo.

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UC Santa Barbara 80, UC Riverside 58--Branduinn Fullove had 18 points for the host Gauchos (17-10), who shot 54.8% from the field in the second half.