CSUN BOUNCES REALITY CHECK; MATADORS FALL TO CAL POLY IN OT : CAL POLY 97, CSUN 88.Byline: Chris Branam Staff Writer From glory to despair. In less than a week. That was where the Cal State Northridge men's basketball team found itself Saturday night, quietly filing out of the arena following a 97-88 overtime loss to Cal Poly Cal Poly may refer to:
 `ĭs ōbĭs`pō), city (1990 pop. 41,958), seat of San Luis Obispo co., S Calif., near San Luis Obispo Bay; inc. 1856. in a nonconference game
at Mott Gymnasium.
Just four days earlier the Matadors (2-2) had their biggest win in school history, over heavily-favored Fresno State. But against the Mustangs (3-2), CSUN CSUN California State University Northridge wilted in overtime, getting outscored 9-0 in the first two minutes. ``They were more aggressive on offense and we didn't play smart defense,'' CSUN point guard Markus Carr said. ``That pretty much sums it up. . . . An example of not playing smart defense? Overtime.'' Carr, who scored 12 points and had a game-high 10 assists, forced a 77-77 tie with a one-handed jumper in the lane with 25.6 seconds left in regulation. Cal Poly's Mike Wozniak, the school's all-time leading scorer, tried an eight-footer with two seconds left, but the shot was off the mark. A tip-in attempt also failed for the Mustangs. The Matadors, who rallied from a 72-68 deficit with 2:54 left in regulation, brought the rowdy crowd of 2,814 to its feet several times with mistakes in overtime; five of CSUN's 18 turnovers came in the five-minute period. ``I think we were just relieved to get (to overtime),'' CSUN head coach Bobby Braswell Bobby Braswell, an American basketball coach, is currently the head coach for Cal State Northridge. Braswell was named the fourth head coach in Northridge history on April 30, 1996, succeeding the retired Pete Cassidy. said after watching the Matadors fall to 0-3 in overtime games in the last two seasons. ``I thought (Cal Poly) outhustled us. They wanted this game more than we wanted it.'' Jeff Schneider, the Mustangs' head coach, agreed. Cal Poly entered the game with a two-game losing streak - against Big Sky Conference opponents Northern Arizona Northern Arizona is dominated by the Colorado Plateau, the southern border of which in Arizona is called the Mogollon Rim. In the West lies the Grand Canyon, which was cut by the flow of the Colorado River while the land slowly rose around it. and Portland State - and hadn't beaten a Division I team this season. ``That was a well-played college basketball College basketball most often refers to the American basketball competitive governance structure established by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, or NCAA. History
CSUN needed more trips to the free-throw line free-throw line n. See foul line. , because the Mustangs scored 27 more points off free throws than the Matadors. CSUN was 9 of 15 from the line in the game; Cal Poly was 36 of 49. Braswell didn't question the Big West Conference officiating crew, even though four CSUN players fouled out. ``I can't blame the officials,'' Braswell said. ``We weren't moving our feet, and we were using our hands too much. They got to the free-throw line a lot - more than we did - and they made the hustle plays.'' The final statistics were confounding confounding when the effects of two, or more, processes on results cannot be separated, the results are said to be confounded, a cause of bias in disease studies. confounding factor . The Matadors outshot the Mustangs (49 percent to 42), committed fewer turnovers (18 to 22) and were only slightly outrebounded by a taller frontline (44 to 41). CSUN was also quicker on the fastbreak and had a better full-court press full-court press n. 1. Basketball An aggressive defensive strategy in which one or two players harass the ball handler in the backcourt while the rest of the team maintains a close man-to-man or zone defense. 2. . ``They just did the things they needed to do to win and we didn't,'' said CSUN forward Jeff Parris, who had a team-high 17 points and also had seven rebounds before fouling out in overtime. ``They had a lot of size, but we just didn't go to the boards and we didn't box out.'' Cal Poly's Chris Bjorklund, a junior center, scored a game-high 30 points despite making only two of his final seven shots. CSUN's Brian Heinle had 16 points and 11 rebounds in his second consecutive game off the bench. |
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