Grand Canyon Pushes Northridge Over the Edge, 88-82

NORTHRIDGE —  Cal State Northridge hit rock bottom Monday night, sent there by a school with an appropriate name.

Grand Canyon, a contingent from the very same NCAA Division II conference Northridge spurned five years ago, downed the Matadors, 88-82, in a nonconference men’s basketball game before 329 spectators in the Northridge Gym.

Horacio Llamas scored 26 points and Tyrome Finney added 19 for Grand Canyon, which shot 58.9%.

Eric Gray and Shane O’Doherty each scored 18 points for Northridge, which also got 17 points and 10 rebounds from Peter Micelli.

Grand Canyon, which leads the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. by a half-game, improved to 11-8 overall. Northridge dropped to 4-13.

So this is how far Northridge has come in its half-decade Division I tenure?

Northridge forward Ruben Oronoz, who missed his fourth consecutive game because of a leg injury, was joined in street clothes by post man Tom Samson, hobbled by a bad back.

Mike Dorsey, Northridge’s leading scorer, scored one point and fouled out in 15 minutes.

Grand Canyon features five players who weigh more than 240 pounds, led by Llamas, whose 6-foot-10 frame packs a muscular 300.

“Our inside people either could not or would not defend them,” Northridge Coach Pete Cassidy said.

Gray, who fired in four three-point baskets, described the outing as “one of the most embarrassing things I’ve gone through.”

Said Micelli: “I don’t think in our position we can take anyone lightly. I don’t know why we would.

“It’s embarrassing. We played like cowards.”

Grand Canyon, which trailed, 70-61, with nine minutes left, caught Northridge with 1:46 remaining, and forged ahead, 84-82, on a pair of free throws by Finney with 43 seconds to go.