CSUN HAS MORE FIGHT BUT STILL CAN'T GET IT RIGHT PACIFIC 67, CSUN 59.

Byline: Jill Painter Staff Writer

STOCKTON - Scuffles, scratches and staredowns. Ugly words and harsh fouls. Big shot after big shot. But for Cal State Northridge, an emotional roller coaster all ended in tears.

Cal State Northridge and University of the Pacific staged a scrappy affair. Even though their method was much more efficient, it still equaled another Big West Conference loss for the Matadors.

CSUN cut Pacific's lead to one point nine times in the second half, but on eight of those occasions, Pacific answered with a basket. Pacific took control in the final minute at the Spanos Center - where it has lost just once this year - and clawed its way to a 67-59 victory.

CSUN (6-7) lost its fifth in a row and fell to 0-3 in conference for the first time since the 1998-99 season.

But CSUN coach Bobby Braswell was as happy as he's been in weeks. Justice Graham was reduced to tears. And Ian Boylan was choked up.

``We're back,'' Braswell said. ``That pleases me to see that. It shows you just how much this means to these guys. You can't question as a coach how important this game was to them.''

Or how exciting.

CSUN had its last lead - only its second of the second half - at 56-55 after Chris Davis stole an inbounds pass and made an inside shot with 3:29 left. The Matadors didn't score again until the final seconds. They missed six of their final seven shots.

``It's very disappointing,'' CSUN guard Curtis Slaughter said. ``We did all we could do and still came up empty.''

Pacific guard Miah Davis made an open 3-pointer from the left side for a 58-56 lead the Tigers never gave back. Boylan missed a 3-pointer on the other end and Swede Christian Maraker - who had a game-high 18 points - knocked down an open shot with 1:28 left for a 60-56 lead.

The game came down to a couple of defensive breakdowns and missed shots for CSUN.

``It was a little more rough than I thought it'd be,'' Maraker said. ``But they lost two conference games, and we'd won ours. We're going on the road now, we didn't want to lose at home.''

Davis said: ``If we played like them, we'd beat people by 50.''

Davis was in the middle of a scuffle at the end of the first half. He said Graham hit him in the eye, and Graham was called for a foul. Davis then threw the ball at Lionel Benjamin.

Graham got involved and tried to push Davis with an open fist. Graham's arm didn't touch Davis but, as Davis went after Graham, official Matt Tackett grabbed him in a bear hug, nearly picked him up off the ground and steered him away from Graham.

Davis and Graham were called for offsetting double technicals and the Tigers shot a free throw on Graham's foul.

``We played hard,'' Benjamin said. ``If we played like that every game, we'd be doing great. We've got that toughness. We just needed to make some shots. We had opportunities.''

Pacific (8-4, 3-0) has won seven games in a row, their longest streak since 1997.

Slaughter scored a team-high 15 points and Boylan, who missed six of his 10 shots, added 10.

CSUN tied a season low with 21 points in the first half. Pacific, which held a 40-32 rebounding edge, never led by more than seven points.