HEFTY IOWA OUTMUSCLES NORTHRIDGE IN BLOWOUT : IOWA 90, CSUN 65.

Byline: Daily News

Derrick Higgins scored Sunday as he never had before as a Division I basketball player.

But his 25 points, many of them on fast-break layups, weren't enough to even slow down host Iowa, which took over with a minute to play in the first half and trounced Cal State Northridge 90-65 in front of 14,113 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa, on Sunday.

``It was tragic we lost by this much,'' said Higgins, who made all three of his 3-point attempts.

Well, at least Northridge won't see anything like that again.

That knowledge was the consolation the Matadors took home after their worst loss of the season.

``Our nonconference schedule has prepared us for playing in the Big Sky (Conference),'' said first-year coach Bobby Braswell, whose team begins its first season in the Big Sky on Thursday at home against Portland State. ``We're not going to see any teams with the size Iowa has.''

It wasn't so much the height as the width of the Hawkeyes that doomed the Matadors (4-6).

``Their guards were huge, and they rebound,'' said Northridge forward Kevin Taylor, who scored 13 points. ``They were all like 6-4 or 6-5. And if they weren't, they all had bodies. That was the key, the guards rebounding.''

It was just the second time this season Northridge was outrebounded. But they were outrebounded by a ton - 51-23.

``Coming into (this game) we were a good rebounding team,'' Braswell said. ``But we didn't show that today. We came in averaging eight more rebounds than our opponents. Iowa crashed the boards and did a much better job on the defensive glass.''

Junior forward Ryan Bowen grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds and scored 18 points for Iowa (9-3). His performance was overshadowed only by that of senior guard Andre Woolridge, who scored 21 points and ran all over the Matadors.

Gerald Rhoden came off the bench to score 13 for Northridge, and walk-on point guard Lucky Grundy started his seventh straight game and did not commit a turnover.

With its full-court pressure, Northridge stayed with Iowa early and led by as many as five points in the first half.

Higgins hit two early 3-pointers to help Northridge take a 17-12 lead. The Matadors led 27-25 with 5:30 left in the half and were up 34-33 after Rhoden's 3-pointer with 1:41 remaining.

But on its last four possessions of the half, Northridge missed two shots after breaking Iowa's press and turned the ball over twice, and the Hawkeyes pulled ahead.

The Hawkeyes scored the final eight points of the half to go up 41-34, then used two big second-half runs to break it open.

Iowa also did a better job of handling the ball in the second half, turning it over just four times after committing 16 in the first half.

With Iowa leading 54-46, Woolridge scored on a drive to start a 15-5 run that Kent McCausland capped with a 3-pointer, making it 69-51 with 7:53 left. ``We gave them a game for 18 minutes,'' Braswell said. ``But that kind of play is not going to get it done against a team like Iowa. . . . Tonight was no indication of how good this team can be. I felt like in the second half, the team was really drained, and Iowa's size wore us down.''