It was yet another down-to-the-wire match for the Matadors, whose outlook looked bleak after being down by 13 points at halftime, but CSUN (13-9, 7-2 Big West) pulled it together and got the 64-58 victory over UC Riverside (4-17, 2-7) Thursday evening at the Student Recreation Center.
This win keeps Northridge alone in first place in the Big West Conference and marks a three-game winning streak for the team.
“Coaching is a lot like parenting. At some point you get tired of telling them the same things over and over again and sometimes you have to fall flat on your face in order to learn a lesson,” Matador head coach Jason Flowers said to his team during the halftime intermission. “I told them that they had a decision to make. We’re either going to play hard or we’ll just take a whooping on the road, and they decided to play harder.”
CSUN was led by center Jasmine Erving who, after being forced to sit on the bench in the first half due to foul trouble, came into the second half looking to take control and get her team the win.
“The first half, our whole team kind of started a little rocky,” Erving said. “We didn’t come out great on defense or offense and I think the whole emphasis of the second half was to come out and play our style of game that we’re used to playing and I was playing hard and I think we got that done in the second half.”
Erving finished with 22 points and 11 rebounds, with all her points coming in the second half.
“She was a big key to our performance,” Matador guard Janae Sharpe said, who finished with 10 points, four assists and two steals. “She came out in the second half ready to go and that helped us out a lot. That gave everybody confidence and motivated us to keep giving her the ball. And when we gave her the ball, she just went to work.”
But Erving’s offensive display alone wouldn’t have gotten CSUN the win. Guard Randi Friess’ defensive presence contained UCR and created clutch stops to help her team pick at the Highlanders’ lead. She had a well-rounded game, with eight points, six rebounds and four steals.
“She does whatever needs to be done,” Flowers said. “Part of that was putting the ball in the basket. It’s more than just her normal defense and rebounding. She got steals and got in the passing lanes. She was huge.”
Turnovers weren’t that big of an issue for the Matadors Thursday, only coughing the ball up 16 times while UCR gave the ball away 19 times. Though the Highlanders converted those turnovers into 24 points, CSUN had a much improved game in terms of ball security.
Northridge will round out its two-game road trip on Saturday as the team faces UC Irvine at the Bren Events Center.
