CSUN SURVIVES MONTANA SCARE : CSUN 92, MONTANA 88.

Byline: Brian Dohn Daily News Staff Writer

Cal State Northridge led Montana by 18 points at the half, by 17 with a little more than 11 minutes left. But if you haven't figured it out by now, nothing is simple for CSUN. Nothing.

It came down to the Matadors making six straight free throws in the final 32 seconds as they survived against the Grizzles 92-88 Sunday at Sentinel High School.

The Matadors will take it. Any way they get it. Because they needed to win to keep their season from evaporating.

``We felt this was a must-win for us, no doubt about it,'' said CSUN coach Bobby Braswell, who battled the flu bug during the weekend. ``We (pressed) because we felt we had to light a fire with our guys. We've been too complacent at the beginning of games.''

It ended a losing streak at three games for the Matadors (10-8, 2-4 Big Sky) that had the mental weight of three months. It's not a cure-all, but it sure does go a long way in soothing a bunch of burned-out CSUN psyches.

The Matadors were supposed to storm through the league. Instead, it took a 57-point, press-filled first half and harrowing final few minutes for them not to fall 1-1/2 games behind the Grizzlies (8-8, 1-4) for the sixth spot in the Big Sky Conference. In the process the Matadors found a few things that had been AWOL since the conference season began.

Instead of relying on pressure defense to rally from a large deficit, the Matadors used the press to build a big lead. CSUN also re-established its inside game, pounding the ball into the low post.

``I'm not sure in the first 10 minutes we weren't shell-shocked,'' Montana coach Don Holst said. ``But the guy that killed us was Jeff Parris. He's about my size and we couldn't hold him.''

Parris, all 6-foot-5 of him, scored a career-high 19 points on 7-of-9 shooting before fouling out with 3:22 to play. Any time the Grizzlies were poised to pull within a possession, it seemed Parris scored from close range.

And with Parris on the bench in the closing minutes, it was Brian Heinle (13 points) who moved into the middle. He scored on low-post moves to give CSUN five-point leads on two occasions.

``In the last few games we were getting away from putting the ball in the low post and we were shooting a lot of outside shots, and missing a lot of those shots'' Parris said. ``We were trying to slow it down and get it down in the post, and that opens the outside shots. When we settle down and move the ball around and get it inside the post, we get better shots.''

There was also the steady play of newly appointed point guard Greg Minor. He scored a team-high 20 points and made four 3-pointers, but his value was in settling down CSUN's offense.

When Montana went on a 12-3 run to pull within 80-77, it was Minor who calmly ran the Matadors' half-court offense so they would get quality shots.

``In high school I used to play the point my whole career and they moved me to (shooting) guard because I can shoot, but I'd rather play the point,'' Minor said. ``We knew we had to at least get one because we knew we couldn't go home 1-5.''