Northridge Comeback Falls Short

Cal State Northridge had been there before.

Just like in their season opener against Nevada Las Vegas, the Matadors had the ball in their hands with the clock ticking down and the game on the line.

And just like before, they fell short.

Lucky Grundy’s desperation three-point shot missed at the buzzer as Northridge lost to Loyola Marymount, 77-74, in a nonconference game at Gersten Pavilion on Saturday night.

The loss was disheartening to Coach Bobby Braswell because his team had battled almost all the way back from a 23-point halftime deficit.

“You look back on games like this and say ‘God, if only we could have done this or that,’ ” Braswell said. “Games like this hurt.”

Loyola, meanwhile, could only breath a sigh of relief.

“Those big leads can be curses sometimes,” Coach John Olive said. “I was happy with the poise of our kids surviving that onslaught.”

Loyola (2-1) opened the game with an 11-0 run. The Matadors (1-2) did not score their first basket until five minutes had passed and, even then, the Lions answered with a 6-0 run to increase their lead to 17-2.

Midway through the half, Northridge finally got its full-court defense cranked up, but time and again Loyola broke the press and scored easily from inside.

Senior point guard Jim Williamson, who had struggled in the first two games of the season, broke out of his slump with 10 points in the early going.

If things weren’t bad enough for the Matadors, their point guard, Trenton Cross, came out of the game after a collision under the basket that left him with possible cracked ribs.

In his absence, the Matadors could not seem to find the gaps in Loyola’s zone defense, shooting 25%. Even with a late surge by Gerald Rhoden, who scored eight points to end the half, the Matadors trailed, 48-25.

“Sure do wish I knew who that team was the first half,” Braswell said. “You sit there on the bench and wonder who those guys are.”

Said Matador forward Kevin Taylor: “We should never have dug a hole that big. Coach came in and reminded us how hard we’ve been working in practice.”

At the start of the second half, Rhoden let his actions speak louder than words. The senior guard, who finished with 26 points, continued his scoring streak as Northridge put together a 16-2 run.

“I wanted to win this game,” Rhoden said. “I wanted to show everybody that it was time to go.”

His teammates got the message, turning up the heat on their full-court press.

It was a situation tailor-made for a team that has pinned its hopes on creating havoc with defense and uptempo offense.

Grundy, a walk-on pressed into duty by Cross’ injury, made two three-point baskets as time wound down.

But the Matadors appeared to run out of steam in the final minutes. At roughly the same time, Lion sophomore guard Tim Kennedy picked up his game, scoring the bulk of his 18 points.

Williamson finished with 12 points and Lion forward John Anthony had 11 points and six rebounds.

Matador forward Keith Higgins had 10 rebounds.

The Lions outshot the Matadors, 50% to 40%. They also had the edge in rebounds, 41-36.

“It all came down to how much [we] wanted to win this game,” Braswell said. “We weren’t ready to fight.”