CSUN HANGS IN, GETS BEST WIN EVER; HEINLE HOT HAND HELPS BEAT FRESNO : CSUN 69, FRESNO ST. 66.

Byline: Chris Branam Staff Writer

Sure, its opponent was missing an All-American.

Think the Cal State Northridge men's basketball team cares? The Matadors pulled off what could be the most important win in school history Tuesday night - a 69-66 victory over heavily favored Fresno State.

CSUN (2-1) went up by as many as 16 points in the second half, held on and shocked a sellout crowd 10,220 fans.

The Bulldogs, with their roster full of high school all-stars, including Naismith Award candidate Courtney Alexander, were outplayed by Northridge players who probably never hit FSU head coach Jerry Tarkanian's recruiting radar.

``This is the kind of win I've dreamed of for this program for four years,'' said CSUN head coach Bobby Braswell, who had a one-word answer when asked if it was the biggest win in school history:

``Absolutely.''

``We're going to enjoy this win, we're going to savor it,'' Braswell said.

CSUN got a game-high 27 points from Brian Heinle and outrebounded Fresno State 53-36. The Matadors also hit four crucial free throws in the final two minutes to keep the Bulldogs (3-3) from playing for the lead.

Consecutive baskets by Heinle and Markus Carr gave CSUN a 38-28 lead with 15:39 left - and the crowd was stunned by how handily the Matadors were beating the Bulldogs.

When Hewitt Rolle made an easy layup to increase the CSUN lead to 45-34, the fans were angry, lustily booing the Bulldogs off the court during a timeout.

And then came Heinle once again, with a 3-pointer to make it 48-34. Then an uncontested dunk by Andre Larry with 10:34 made it 52-34.

This was a Fresno State team picked to win the Western Athletic Conference and coming off a championship-game appearance this past weekend at the Hawaii Pacific Thanksgiving Classic.

In the first half, Fresno State made just one of its first 10 shots to allow CSUN to build confidence early. After a sluggish start - the Matadors missed their first five shots and didn't score until Larry's 18-footer from the top of the key with 15 minutes left in the first half - CSUN outplayed Fresno State through much of the game's first 20 minutes.

Three-pointers by Heinle and Marco McCain were highlights of a 14-3 run over six minutes. Heinle's three with 9:24 left gave CSUN a 16-9 lead.

It was Heinle, the benched center who scored 21 points in Saturday's home win against Cal State Dominguez Hills, who ignited the Matadors. His dribble-drive and dunk around center Melvin Ely, one of the Bulldogs' best players, gave CSUN a 14-9 lead at the 10-minute mark of the first half.

After Fresno State brought the sellout crowd back into the game with a dunk by Ely to cut the CSUN lead to 22-21, CSUN answered with crisp inside passes which resulted in easy layups.

Jeff Parris (11 points, 11 rebounds) capped the half with a driving lay in at the buzzer to increase the Matadors' lead to 32-25.

CSUN shot just 37 percent in the first half (14 of 38) but the Bulldogs were worse - 27 percent (9 for 33). That included a 3-for-18 performance from beyond the arc.

The Bulldogs shot 34 percent (24 for 71) in the game, including 12 of 44 (27 percent) on 3-point attempts.

Part of Fresno State's pathetic shooting performance has to be credited to CSUN's defensive changes. The Matadors started the game in a zone, then went man-to-man, then went back to zone.

``We wanted to come out and play our game and we did,'' said Heinle, who made 11 of 19 shots and also had four assists in just 28 minutes.