CSUN Suffers 1st Defeat at Home, 61-59

Cal State Northridge forward Shelton Boykin vowed that Weber State would get a good whipping Saturday night when it came into Matador Gymnasium, site of all three of the Matadors’ wins.

But Weber State’s Jason Joe made a three-point play with four seconds left to hand Northridge its first loss at home, 61-59, before a season-high crowd of 1,274.

“I stand behind what I say,” Boykin said. “I played good defense, I hit the boards and I made a key basket, but as a whole, we didn’t come through. I missed the front end of a one-and-one, Todd (Bowser) missed a free throw. It all adds up.”

Northridge made only 61.9% of its foul shots and only 33.9% of its attempts from the field.

“The bottom line the whole game is that our shots didn’t fall,” Northridge Coach Pete Cassidy said. “We played our tails off on defense. I couldn’t be prouder of the effort. We got a lot of good shots, they simply wouldn’t fall.”

Kyle Kerlegan missed 10 of 14 shots, Andre Chevalier missed eight of 11 and Keith Gibbs missed 10 of 13.

It was the Matadors’ second loss to Weber State in the past eight days as a shot with two seconds left by three-point specialist Kerlegan bounced off the rim and out-of-bounds.

The last-gasp play was well-executed as Boykin inbounded the ball from the baseline with a length-of-the-court pass to Percy Fisher, who caught it at the free-throw line. He whirled and passed to Kerlegan, who was behind the three-point line at the top of the key.

The first 10 minutes of the game had an eerie resemblance to Northridge’s last meeting with Weber State as the Matadors (3-9) committed nine turnovers and got off only 11 shots.

“I don’t have a magic wand to eliminate that,” Cassidy said. “All we can do is continue to practice and improve on our execution.”

Fortunately for Northridge, Weber State (5-6) missed seven of its first eight shots and led only 14-13.

Northridge was no better before intermission, however. In the last 5 minutes 30 seconds of the half, Kerlegan’s three-point basket was all the Matadors had to show.

The Matadors continued their sluggish offensive play in the second half, lost their lead and found themselves trailing, 52-45, with seven minutes remaining.

But it was far from over as Chevalier, Fisher and Boykin scored to help Northridge pull within two, at 54-52, with three minutes left.

After the teams exchanged two free throws, Kerlegan drained a three-point shot with 1:53 left to give CSUN a 57-56 lead. But Weber State regained the lead on Al Hamilton’s basket.

After a CSUN timeout with 52 seconds left, Chevalier made a save out of bounds and had his shot blocked by Hamilton seven seconds later, but Kerlegan recovered the ball and Fisher scored inside to give the Matadors a 59-58 lead with 21 seconds left.

“I needed that to boost my confidence,” said Fisher, who missed the first 10 games of the season because of academic ineligibility.

After a Weber State timeout, former Santa Monica High guard Joe drove the lane on Gibbs, scored the game-winning layup and swished the free throw.

“I might have leaned into him,” Gibbs said. “I don’t think at the end of the game you make a call like that.

“Usually we find a way to get it done at home. I feel badly because the crowd was great.”