Travis Reed Insures The Free-Fall Continues 73-60

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Feb.16,2002- In a ragged, crudely played contest that neither team appeared to play well enough to win, Cal St Northridge(7-7) shaved all but 2 pts off a 17-pt mid 2nd half deficit, only to fall to Cal st Long Beach 73-60. A promising 1st round record of 7-2 has become nothing more than a distant memory, as the Matadors haver lost all five rematches. They have also dropped six games in the Matadome for the 1st time since Coach Braswell's initial season here in '96-97. As usual, with little front-line scoring, Northridge was forced to rely heavily on scoring from their backcourt. And has been the case lately, they lacked consistancy from the outside. Curtis Slaughter followed up his sensational game 2 nights earlier by connecting on just one FG (a 3, and 2 FT) before hitting from long range with 25 seconds remaining in the half. He scored only 2 pts thereafter. Markus Carr, who entered the game shooting less than 36% from the field in BWC play , endured a 2 pt 1st half, and settled for just 7 on the night.They made just 6-23 shots. Their combined 17 pts was their lowest in conf. play, the previous low for the duo being 18 @Cal Poly Feb. 7.The Matadors see mto have reversed a trend of slow starts, as they jumped to a 16-9 lead on a 3 by Ian Boylan, and didn't fall behind until the final 4 minutes of the half. After leading at intermission of 3 of the previous 4 losses, they trailed this time 35-33 behind Travis Reed's 11 pts. But with neither guard able to shake themselves loose from the quick 49er backcourt, the Northidge offense ground to a halt, and they were outscored 15-4 in the 1st 6 min. When FR Chris Jenkins connected on a 3pt play with 10:40 remaining to build a 57-40 lead, all appeared lost. But remember, this is the same LBS team which blew a 15pt lead at home to Idaho last week. And they appeared poised-a poor choice of words here-to collapse again. The Beach went nearly 6 min without scoring, and surrendered 11 pts in the process, before Read slammed off a nice dish from Vance Lawhorn to make the score 59-51. But the 49ers committed seemingly every type of turnover imaginable-10 second violations, poor passing, a stepping over the endline infraction-, and the "Dors scored the next 6 pts. It was as close as they would gt. A Ron Johnson FT made the score 60-57, the 49ers rebounded the missed 2nd FT, but again turned the ball over. Perhaps the key sequence of the game followed, when Slaughter had a pass intercepted with 2:20 remaining. The visitors ran down the clock, and Lawhorn scored and was fouled on the play. He added the FT to build the lead to 63-57 with 1:50 remaining, and a Boylan miss followed by 2 Ron Johnson FT after a key off RB left the outcome clear. Jermar Welch finished with 16 pts, 11 coming in the dismal 2nd half in which none of his teammates scored more than 5. Reed had 19 pts(8-11 FG) and 13RB. Northridge lost the turnover battle 21-17, but more importantly, were unable to convert the TO they did get, especially in the 2nd half when The Beach committed 13. Oddly, Joe Frazier played 13 min, his higest toal of the month ,despite entering the game with just 2 assists and 17 TO 147 min of BWC play. He was somewhat effective in the trapping defense, and pulled down 5 rebounds. But again was not a factor on offense after scoring the 1st bucket of the game.