Northridge Gets Scare but Wins

Even with the confidence built from eight victories in the last 10 games, Coach Bobby Braswell worried about Cal State Northridge’s game Thursday night against Long Beach State, a team at the opposite end of the basketball spectrum.

The Big West Conference’s resident basement dweller gave the Matadors the kind of game they feared.

However, despite turning in one of its best efforts of the season, Long Beach missed three attempts in the final 8.7 seconds to allow Northridge to escape with a 68-66 home victory.

“As a coach, you worry about games like this,” Braswell said. “You’re playing well and then you get a team like this that comes in. They played free and loose tonight.”

Northridge (11-9 overall, 8-3 in conference) was able to stay in second place ahead of Utah State.

On their final possession, the 49ers’ Jibril Hodges missed a three-point try, Cody Pearson rimmed out a baseline shot and Onye Ibekwe’s off-balance follow didn’t hit the rim.

Robert Locke grabbed the loose ball and teammate Ian Boylan furiously called for a timeout.

“Off to the left,” Hodges said of his final shot. “That’s all I can ask for. Cody set a great screen for me.”

Hodges nearly carried the 49ers (3-17, 1-9) to an upset. The senior guard made nine of 16 shots, including six three-pointers -- two of them from at least 25 feet -- in scoring a career-high 24 points.

“Once he starts feeling it, you’ve got to watch out,” said Boylan, who played with Hodges on a summer-league team.

But with Long Beach down, 65-64, Hodges had a shot in the lane and a three-point try nearly fall before bouncing out. After Locke made two free throws, Ibekwe gave the 49ers another opportunity, but he couldn’t finish off a potential game-tying three-point play with a foul shot.

“I hope we take from it that our guys can play with the best teams in the conference,” Long Beach Coach Larry Reynolds said. “We’re down some players and our guys stuck together and played hard.”

Boylan led Northridge with 19 points and he had six of the Matadors’ nine steals.

Davin White added 17 for the Matadors. Ibekwe had 12 points and seven rebounds for Long Beach.

Eric Stephens

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Cal State Fullerton 76, UC Riverside 55 -- Yaphett King scored 24 points for the Titans at Riverside.

King was one of four players to score in double figures as Fullerton (11-7, 6-4) won its third straight game.

Rickey Porter scored 15 points as the Highlanders (7-12, 3-7) lost their third straight game.

Pacific 71, UC Irvine 61 -- David Doubley scored a game-high 21 points to lead Pacific to its 13th consecutive victory.

Guillaume Yango had 18 points and a game-high nine rebounds at Stockton for the Tigers, who stretched their conference winning streak to 24 games. Pacific (17-2, 11-0) also got 12 points from Jasko Korajkic.

Ross Schraeder led the Anteaters (10-8, 4-6) with 18 points and Greg Ethington added 17.

UC Santa Barbara 54, Idaho 40 -- The Gauchos, playing at home, held Idaho scoreless for nine of the game’s last 10 minutes.

Chrismen Oliver led the Gauchos (8-11, 5-6) with 17 points, and Cameron Goettsche added 13 points and nine rebounds.

Dandrick Jones led the Vandals (7-14, 5-5) with 15.