Olson Helps Pick Up Slack for Matadors

It took a while, but the Cal State Northridge women’s basketball team might finally have learned how to play effectively without a healthy Joan Weinerth.

Weinerth, a freshman point guard, sprained her left ankle early last month and the Lady Matadors have struggled since, losing four of their past five California Collegiate Athletic Assn. games, three of which Weinerth sat out.

But with center Sandi Olson and forward Denna Mulverhill working well inside, Northridge defeated Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, 71-64, in a semifinal game of the CCAA tournament at Cal Poly Pomona’s Kellogg Gym on Thursday night.

Weinerth, still hobbled by a sore ankle, was reduced to a limited role, scoring only four points in 18 minutes.

The win was the 100th of Northridge Coach Leslie Milke’s career (she has 93 losses) and advanced the Lady Matadors into the final against Pomona at Cal State Bakersfield at 6 p.m. Saturday. Pomona beat Chapman, 62-55, Thursday.

“This was by far the best game we’ve played since Joanie’s injury,” Milke said. “Starting with the Dominguez game, we hit a period where we just flattened out. But tonight we played as well as we did in some of the games in the first half of the conference season. Sandi and CeCe Landsgaard played their best games of the year.”

Without a true point guard in the starting lineup, Northridge (11-17) relied on its inside game, defense and some timely outside shooting to beat the Mustangs, who defeated the Lady Matadors in the CCAA regular-season finale a week earlier.

Olson scored a team-high 20 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, and Mulverhill had 12 points and a game-high 13 rebounds.

Landsgaard, starting in place of Weinerth, had 10 points, five rebounds and two assists. Russia Madden scored a game-high 23 points for San Luis Obispo (13-14).

Leading by four points at halftime, the Lady Matadors fell behind, 43-40, with 14 minutes 22 seconds left, then went on a 12-0 run that gave them a 52-43 lead with 8:25 remaining.

Mulverhill, Landsgaard and Haily Griffith (eight points) scored four points each during the streak, which was fueled by four San Luis Obispo turnovers.

Northridge led, 36-32, at halftime after scoring six points in the last 31 seconds.

Deanne Cox’s three-point basket gave San Luis Obispo a 32-30 lead with 50 seconds left, but Olson converted a three-point play and Dawn Broline hit a three-point shot with three seconds remaining to give Northridge a four-point cushion at intermission.