Absence of Moore Makes CSLA Less Difficult for CSUN

As if Cal State Northridge needed any help--and for a while, it appeared as if it would--Cal State Los Angeles benched its best player for disciplinary reasons Friday night.

Rhodney Moore, the Golden Eagles’ top scorer and rebounder, was suspended for a game by Coach Henry Dyer for missing a practice this week.

What horrible timing. Cal State L. A. would normally need not one, but a couple of more Moores to be competitive in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. The Eagles came into their conference opener at home against CSUN with the only losing record (2-11) among CCAA teams in nonconference games.

But for almost a half, Moore’s absence seemed to adversely affect Northridge more than Cal State L. A.

Eventually, the Matadors took a commanding edge and won fairly easily, 69-55, running their record to 10-4 and handing the Eagles their ninth consecutive loss.

Northridge played as well--and as poorly--as it had all season during segments of the game.

CSUN Coach Pete Cassidy seemed fairly confident of the reason. “A lot of that was mental,” he said.

Jemarl Baker, 1 of only 2 CSUN players to shoot better than 50%, said that it was tough to keep a competitive edge against the outmanned Eagles, who laid a goose egg over the course of the 14-game conference schedule last season.

“We knew they were talented,” Baker said. “We came here ready, but you don’t come in ready to play as hard as you would against a Bakersfield. You try, but it’s hard to do.”

Such problems never would have become apparent if the Matadors had made some easy shots in the first half.

Northridge, which had shot less than 40% in its previous 2 games, made only 38.2% of its attempts in the first half.

“I don’t know if we came in with full concentration,” Cassidy said. “We missed a lot of layups and around-the-basket shots.”

Said Baker: “We were getting a lot of open shots, we just weren’t making them.”

Even so, the Matadors led at the half, 31-23. Northridge was fortunate in that as poorly as it played in the first half, Cal State L. A. was equally bad. In some cases worse. The Eagles shot only 31.4%.

Still, Northridge didn’t take the lead for good until 2:39 remained in the half. A jump shot by Darren Matsubara put the Matadors ahead, 24-23, and ignited a 9-0 run to end the half.

In the previous 8 minutes, CSUN had managed only 1 basket, a jump hook by center Todd Bowser.

“There were stretches I thought we played very well. It was like, ‘See, coach, we can do it,’ ” Cassidy said, sticking his tongue out to mimic the attitude of his players.

Northridge shot 56.5% in the second half and twice opened 20-point leads.

Guard Derrick Gathers ended his 2-game shooting slump for the Matadors, scoring a game-high 20 points on 8-of-14 shooting, including 4 of 7 from 3-point range. He also had 8 rebounds and 4 steals.

Matsubara added 12 points for CSUN, while Bowser had 11 points and 8 rebounds.

Northridge put Cal State L. A. away early in the second half, outscoring the Eagles, 9-2, over a 2-minute stretch.

Consecutive steals by Matsubara, Gathers and Kris Brodowski resulted in 4 points and the Matadors had a 42-27 advantage only 5 minutes into the second half.

After Bruce Turner scored on a layup with 2:23 into the second half, the Eagles scored only 2 points over the next 7 minutes as Northridge ran out to a 20-point lead.

Turner led the Eagles with 13 points. David Porter added 11, but made only 5 of 19 shots.