CSUN DELIVERS IN OPENER WIN OVER USC IS ITS FIRST IN FIVE TRIES.

Byline: Ramona Shelburne Staff Writer

Even the sunniest coaches would've had a hard time finding a positive spin to bring into his team's huddle. A 14-point lead - and with it a chance to upset a Pacific-10 Conference foe on its home court - was gone and a five-minute overtime lay ahead.

They don't give out brownie points to schools from mid-major conferences that almost pull off upsets.

Bobby Braswell had learned that the hard way on enough occasions in his 10 seasons as men's basketball coach at Cal State Northridge. Still, he managed a line that would make even the best political pundit proud.

``I just told them that I was happy we were in this situation, that I wanted to see what kind of team I had,'' Braswell recounted after the game. ``I was going to find out if I had a team that was going to battle all the way to the end.''

Sure enough, he did.

After falling behind by three in the first minute of overtime, sophomore guard Jonathan Heard hit a 3-pointer to start the Matadors on an 11-3 run to close out an 81-76 victory over USC, marking the Matadors' first win in five games with the Trojans.

Sunday's victory may not have been as big a win as CSUN's 78-74 victory over then-No. 15 UCLA at Pauley Pavilion in 2000, but for a young team, who graduated its top three scorers from a year ago, this was big.

``When we beat UCLA, I think people had a pretty good idea already that we had a good team that year,'' Braswell said. ``This year, we have a very young team. People don't expect a lot from us ... so this means a lot to our program.''

The way Sunday's game ended also meant that Northridge has several players willing to take the big shot, other than junior guard Mike Efevberha.

Freshman point guard Jason Hill (Cleveland High of Reseda) made a 3-foot floater in heavy traffic to extend the Matadors' lead to 79-76 with under a minute remaining in overtime. And then there was Heard's 3-pointer that started the overtime surge.

Ramona Shelburne, [phone]

ramona.shelburne(at)dailynews.com