Layoff Comes at an Opportune Time for Struggling CS Northridge Men

The Cal State Northridge men’s basketball team doesn’t play another home game until Jan. 26 against Chapman. Perhaps the long layoff is for the best.

CSUN had won 5 in a row at home before dropping its past 2--both in similar fashion.

Last Friday, Millersville (Pa.) defeated the Matadors, 81-80. On Tuesday, Biola dropped CSUN in overtime, 76-71.

Northridge (9-4) had chances to win both games but failed to get off a high-percentage shot when it needed a basket most.

“We’re not executing when we have to,” CSUN Coach Pete Cassidy said. This is particularly disturbing to Cassidy at this juncture because the Matadors open California Collegiate Athletic Assn. play Friday at Cal State Los Angeles.

“We have to win close games or we’re not going to be a factor in the CCAA,” Cassidy said. “We’ve had the ball in our hands with a chance to win two games and we’ve lost both. I consider those as games we lost, not that we were beaten. . . . It’s a matter of us learning how to win tough ballgames.”

The Matadors had better learn quickly. Of CSUN’s 14 conference games last season, 6 were decided in overtime or by 6 points or less.

Add CSUN: Cassidy was distraught by his team’s play selection in the final minutes of the loss to Millersville (Pa.). He was equally unhappy with the officiating, however.

“You never put the game in the hands of officials. Never put them in a position to hurt you,” Cassidy said after the game. “But that’s what we did, and it cost us.”

Northridge contended that center Todd Bowser was fouled as he attempted a 3-point shot with 5 seconds left.

Add zebras: Larry Lopez, Cal Lutheran’s men’s basketball coach, is not eager to schedule Eastern Montana again after his team’s experience in Billings, Mont., last week.

In addition to losing 2 nonconference basketball games and enduring 4 days of near-freezing temperatures, Lopez said that the officiating at Eastern Montana was the worst he has seen in his career.

“There were some extremely poor calls,” Lopez said. “We were taken out of both of those games by the referees.”

Opening serve: No one can accuse the CSUN men’s volleyball team of padding its schedule. As the only Matador team playing in a Division I conference, the volleyball team competes in the conference that has produced every NCAA Division I national champion.

The Matadors will open the season against several of the nation’s heavyweights when they take part in the 25th UC Santa Barbara Invitational beginning Friday.

Among those schools competing in the 2-day tournament are defending NCAA champion USC, NCAA runner-up UC Santa Barbara, UCLA and Hawaii. CSUN’s 4-team bracket includes the University of Manitoba, the tournament’s defending champion.

CSUN finished 15-9 overall and 7-11 in the Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. last year, good for seventh place in the 10-team conference but a win short of qualifying for the playoffs. The Matadors, who finished the season ranked No. 12 by the Tachikara coaches’ poll, have 5 returning starters.

Noticeably absent, however, is middle blocker Jeff Campbell, an honorable-mention All-American who will not return for his senior season because of chronic knee problems.

Cutting it close: Some members of the CSUN volleyball team squad have forsaken shaving until the Santa Barbara tournament.

A sign of solidarity? Not quite.

“We get up at 6 in the morning to practice,” sophomore middle blocker Raphael Tulino said. “No one wants to shave.”

Warming trend: The Master’s College basketball team is hot.

The Mustangs (9-8) have won 5 of 6, including a sweep during a recent 3-game swing through Northern California.

In those 5 wins, the Mustangs averaged 90.2 points while limiting opponents to 68.

Freshman forward Tom Bruner leads the Mustangs in scoring with 15.6 points a game. Senior forward Phil Hahn (14.1) and freshman forward Jason Webster (12.8) are the team’s other top scorers.

Temperature check: The Master’s women’s basketball team is cold.

The Lady Mustangs suffered a 64-52 loss to Cal Lutheran on Tuesday to drop to 2-9.

“The experience on this team is very thin,” first-year Master’s Coach Dean Conk said.

Indeed, 5 of the team’s 9 players are playing their first season of collegiate basketball and 3 are playing only their second season.

The lone bright spot for Master’s has been Laurel Hudgens, a senior transfer who played 3 seasons at Kentucky.

Hudgens, a 6-1 senior, is the leading scorer and rebounder in NAIA District 3, averaging 21 points and 10 rebounds.

The Lady Mustangs play tonight at Christ College in Irvine.

Streak intact: The Moorpark women’s basketball team has picked up where it left off in the Western State Conference and extended its conference winning streak to 18 games over 3 seasons.

The Lady Raiders added to their WSC streak Monday by rallying for a 66-47 victory over Oxnard after missing their first 15 field-goal attempts.

“The girls are playing pretty good defense this year and that’s the big key for us,” Moorpark Coach Gary Abraham said. “We don’t have a major scorer this year, but we have a lot more depth.”

Kerrie Marshall averages 17 points to lead Moorpark.

Chris Parker and staff writers Gary Klein, Mike Hiserman and Ralph Nichols contributed to this notebook.