CSUN Shooting Woes Continue Despite Win

For only the second time this season, the Cal State Northridge men’s basketball team has won two of its last three games, but the Matadors are hardly on a roll as they head into Friday night’s California Collegiate Athletic Assn. opener at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

Northridge (5-8) handily defeated the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, 59-37, in a nonconference game at CSUN on Monday, but poor shooting--both from the field and the free-throw line--and turnovers continued to plague the Matadors.

Northridge shot 40.4% (23 for 57) from the field, 50% (11 of 22) from the free-throw line and committed 15 turnovers--10 in the first half--against a Colorado team that will move up to the NCAA Division II level from the NAIA next season.

It was the eighth game in a row that Northridge has made less than 50% of its shots and the fifth consecutive contest in which the Matadors have made less than 44% of their shots.

“It’s like we have the doldrums,” Northridge Coach Pete Cassidy said. “It seems like we’ve hit a plateau, and we can’t get over it.

“I keep expecting us to take a step up to another level, and let’s hope it happens real quick.”

Northridge struggled for the first 27 minutes against the Gold (3-7) before going on a 15-0 run to take a 51-31 lead with 6:10 left.

Freshman Percy Fisher started the Matador run with two slam dunks--the second coming on a follow shot--and junior Erik Cooper ended it with a right-handed jam off a steal.

Fisher, a 6-foot-7, 205-pound forward from Riordan High in San Francisco, had eight points, six rebounds and a blocked shot, while Cooper added six points in only eight minutes.

Derrick Gathers, who missed last Friday’s game at Southern Utah State because he was taking interim classes at CSUN, had game-high totals of 20 points and 12 rebounds.

Erick Morr led Colorado with 10 points, but eight of those came in the first half as the Gold scored only 11 points after intermission.