[0] CSUN AGAIN FAILS TO MAKE UP DEFICIT : MONTANA 78 CSUN 75.

Byline: Kevin Acee Daily News Staff Writer

His team down by two points and the set play dissolved, Lucky Grundy charged into the lane, his eyes belying the panic that had gripped his senses.

Inside, he was met by three members of the opposition, all taller than he. He lost the ball. Northridge lost the game.

It was a case of another point guard blowing it in the final seconds as Cal State Northridge lost another close one. That will be the lasting image from the Matadors' 78-75 loss to Montana in a Big Sky Conference game Thursday night in front of 811 at the Northridge gymnasium.

Grundy himself said, ``I cost us the game.''

Trenton Cross, the man who might still be Northridge's starting point guard if he had finished some plays with the game on the line, hopes Grundy is cut some slack.

``I feel for him,'' said Cross, who twice in the first six games bungled a last-chance play for Northridge. ``It's a tough situation to be in. I know right now he feels like the smallest person on earth.

``From the outside, it looks like one play. But the game was not (decided) on one play. It's a 40-minute game.''

Six of Northridge's games this season have been decided by seven points or less. Northridge (8-11, 4-5) has not been the winner in any of those.

``We still haven't figured out how to win a close game,'' said Matadors coach Bobby Braswell, whose team lost its third straight and fell to seventh place in the Big Sky.

Montana (15-8, 7-4) is alone in second place following its seventh victory in its past eight games.

``There comes a point where a player has to make a play,'' said Cross, who ironically scored a career-high 24 points Thursday. ``We just haven't been able to make a play at the end of the game.''

Northridge had not participated in a finish like this since the frenetic start to the season, when four of its first five losses were decided in the final 10 seconds.

In two of those games, it was Cross directing the offense as time ran out. In the 61-59 season-opening loss at UNLV, Cross inexplicably threw the ball out of bounds instead of driving to the goal for the winning basket. In an 80-73 loss to Ohio on Dec. 12, Cross hurried another pass with 10 seconds remaining and Northridge down 76-73.

On Thursday, Grundy took the in-bounds pass with 12.8 seconds remaining and looked to make a connection with Keith Higgins under the basket. When Montana did not do what he expected and Higgins was not open, Grundy drove. He had the ball stripped, and Northridge fouled Montana's Chris Spoja with an eighth of a second remaining. Spoja made his first free throw. Keith Higgins grabbed the missed second shot, but his three-quarter-court shot was well after the buzzer.

``I didn't want to throw (the ball) away,'' Grundy said of his thoughts when Higgins wasn't open. ``I didn't make a decision. I took too long to make one. By the time I did I pressed. I cost us the game.''

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