CSUN BATTLES, BUT LOSES TO SOUTHERN UTAH IN OVERTIME\SOUTHERN UTAH 71, CSUN 65.

Byline: Kevin Acee Special to the Daily News

Eric Gray charged back up the court before stopping short of the center line. He violently pulled out his shirt and stomped his feet on the ground.

It was the final seconds of overtime, and Gray looked and felt like a 6-foot-6, 200-pound toddler who expected a sweet dessert but realized he was getting nothing.

In its American West Conference opener Saturday night, the Cal State Northridge basketball team hung around and hung around and eventually led in the final minute against defending conference champion Southern Utah.

But Southern Utah's Reggie Ingram further cemented his name in Matadors lore with a game-tying basket with four seconds remaining in regulation, and Northridge scored just two points in overtime and lost 71-65 in front of a quiet and likely shocked 4,188 at the Centrum.

"I'm not happy after this," Gray said, recalling a close loss back in December at St. Mary's that left the Matadors giddy. "I'm tired of hearing we played hard. I want to win."

The loss, its fifth straight, left Northridge with a 4-14 record this season and an 0-8 all-time record at Southern Utah. It also dropped coach Pete Cassidy's career record to 331-331.

Northridge, which outshot the Thunderbirds 59.3 percent to 59.1 percent in the second half, trailed 50-41 with 9:59 remaining. But, just as they did numerous times in the first half, the Matadors overcame occasional bumbles and looked like a team that actually practices and erased the deficit.

Sophomore Trenton Cross made both ends of a one-and-one to give Northridge its first lead (63-62) since 2-0 with 1:13 to play. On its next possession, Southern Utah turned the ball over on a pass out of bounds. Matadors senior Robert Hill then drove and was fouled while shooting with 19 seconds to play.

But he missed both free throws.

After calling a timeout, Southern Utah brought the ball down the floor and Ingram swished a 12-foot jumper with four seconds left to tie the game 63-63 with four seconds remaining. Hill missed a one-handed 35-footer at the buzzer.

It was Ingram's 10-foot bank shot in last year's conference championship game that gave the Thunderbirds an 83-82 victory over Northridge.

"Give credit to Reggie Ingram," Cassidy said. "That damn kid - two years in a row."

But just as he did not want to hear talk of how hard his team had played, Gray was not in the mood to elaborate on flashbacks.

"That was last year," he said. ". . . I thought we were finally going to come out of this town with a win."

WOMEN

Southern Utah 71, CS Northridge 39: Northridge, which was atop the American West Conference standings after beating Cal Poly San Luis Obispo on Friday, shot a season-low 26.8 percent from the field.

That pretty much sums up the evening and the entire season.

"In a nutshell, our lack of scoring skill is our most-glaring weakness," said Matadors coach Michael Abraham, whose team is shooting 34 percent on the year.

Ahead 9-7 five minutes into the game, visiting Northridge (3-16, 1-1) let the Thunderbirds (9-11, 1-0) go on a six-point run and steadily fell out of it.

Sarah Hagman and Tannea Nelson each had seven points for CSUN.