Rodrigue Mels has picked up where he left off scoring-wise and is leading the Matadors with 10 points. Tremaine Townsend has six points CSUN. Northridge has gone ahead after trailing in the first minutes of the game. Their lead is now 28-22 with 3:54 to go in the first half. And CSUN must be hoping their fans’ voice is going to last another half. These guys haven’t stopped yelling the whole game.
I don’t know what the refs are looking at at the scorer’s table but the game has stopped. The Matadors are up 25-20 with 6:42 to go. James Nunnally of UCSB just hit his first basket of the game, a 3-pointer.
The Matadors took a comfortable lead (18-12) after Rob Haynes made a wide-open three-pointer from the right wing. CSUN now has its biggest lead of the game. The Matadors lead 23-14 with 9:19 to go in the first half. Their defense is doing the job. CSUN’s forced at least 10 Gaucho turnovers.
The game’s gotten a bit sloppy. There’s been 12 turnovers in the first seven minutes of play. CSUN and UCSB have six each. The Matadors however, are up 13-9.
UCSB got out to a 5-0 lead. CSUN tied it on a 5-0 run. All points were scored by Rodrigue Mels. Current score is 7-7 with 15:30 to go in the first half. And the crowd is definitely on the Matadors’ side. A lot of red and a lot of yellin’.
UC Santa Barbara was not on the floor for the pregame national anthem, drawing cries from Matadors fans who yelled “where are they?” A fan told these fans to shut up. One of them turned back and said “you shut up.” Tremaine Townsend turned and cracked a smile at the exchange. Five minutes till tip-off. And here are the Gauchos. Finally.
Matadors are warming up on the Anaheim Convention Center’s floor. The starters are Mark Hill, Rob Haynes, Kenny Daniels, Willie Galick and Tremaine Townsend. I’m seated right in front of a big group of Matadors fans so I’m sure they’ll have some colorful comments I can share with you. James Nunnally of UCSB has averaged 17 points and 0.25 game-winners at the buzzer over the last four games (that’s one out of four).
The Gauchos beat Cal State Fullerton, 73-64, on Thursday in the second round of the Big West Tournament and advanced to the semifinals. Their rival will be your Matadors, the conference’s regular-season champions. Game starts at 5:30 p.m. at the Anaheim Convention Center and can followed here. Quick Notes: – UCSB has won four straight games and eight of its last nine. – The one game the Gauchos lost in that nine-game span was against the Matadors, 62-57, on Feb…. Read more
The CSUN women’s basketball team defeated UC Davis, 64-56, today in the first round of the Big West Tournament at the Anaheim Convention Center. The upset over the No. 5 seed allows the No. 8 Matadors to live on for another day and face No. 3 Cal Poly tomorrow (Thursday). Certainly an accomplishment for this team which didn’t even qualify for the event last season. Reporter Eric Gonzalez is down in Anaheim and will have the full story soon.