CSUN v. LMU

Ah, the suspension king is finally back. On the court that is. Mike O'Quinn, who played and sat out at LMU two years ago, and sat out last year at CSUN, and then sat some more at the beginning of this season, finally got to get his revenge on his old teammates, as his CSUN Matadors beat the LMU Lions by 13 points, 100-87. O'Quinn, a senior forward (whose brother Jamal O'Quinn plays for Artesia currently) just exploded, scoring a career-high 27 points. He told the LA Times that "It was like a fairy tale. The game I cared the most about, everything I dreamed about, it all came true."

For those not familiar with the story, O'Quinn was a rising star two years ago at LMU, and a starter in 1994-96 for Loyola, was kicked off the LMU team, and couldn't play last season after transferring to CSUN to play for Braswell's team. And just this season alone, which is what, two, three weeks old, he's been suspended twice and couldn't play in the first preseason scrimmage, and also had to watch as the team went to Oregon State without him. So when he was finally reinstated and got the chance to match up against his former teammates, it was a dream come true. . .for him. For LMU, it was a nightmare.

Loyola is only 1-5 on the season, and this game highlighted why: Defense like a sieve. This was apparently the first time that Loyola gave up 100 points since 1994.

There's really a bit more to this game story than O'Quinn though. It also marked the emergence of Jeff Parris a soph forward who hit for 17 points against LMU. He and O'Quinn together were almost unstoppable. At the half, CSUN led 41-37; by the end of the third quarter, the game was completely out of control for Loyola, and CSUN led 83-59, and O'Quinn had scored 14 points in 11 minutes.

And just in case Bobby Braswell was about to get confused and suspend O'Quinn before the start of this game, forward Jabari Simmons stepped up to the plate and volunteered to get suspended himself, thereby taking the heat off O'Quinn. Jabari showed up late for the second game in a row, and sat out the first half on the pine, but Braswell relented and let him in during the second half; he played 12 minutes but didn't score a point. See, that'll show him what happens if you're late to a game. . .

Northridge also had some other great scoring too. Greg Minor, 22 points, 5 assists; Derrick Higgins, 12 points

Loyola shot terribly, making only nine of 29 three's and compiling 24 turnovers and 32 fouls. Here's the numbers:

LOYOLA MARYMOUNT (87)
                      fg    ft    rb
               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tp
Kennedy         18   3-5   4-6   2-2  2  4   11
Ammerman        24  6-10   2-2   1-3  0  5   19
Cornell         17   4-4   0-0   3-5  0  5    8
Eaddy           37  9-20   9-1   1-3  4  2   28
Allen           20   2-9   0-0   0-1  2  4    5
Papadopulous     9   0-0   0-0   0-0  3  3    0
Saucedo         14   3-8   2-3   1-4  2  1    9
Mashack         18   1-5   0-1   1-3  0  1    2
Kainga           5   0-0   0-0   0-1  0  1    0
Perry           10   0-1   1-2   0-1  0  3    1
Hotopp          28   2-6   0-0   3-9  0  3    4
_______________________________________________
TOTALS         200 30-68 18-15 12-32 13 32   87
_______________________________________________

Percentages: FG-.441, FT-1.20. 3-Point Goals: 9-29, .310
(Kennedy 1-2, Ammerman 5-7, Eaddy 1-8, Allen 1-5, Saucedo 1-4, Mashack 0-2, Hotopp 0-1).
Team rebounds: 3. Blocked shots: 3 (Kennedy, Ammerman, Cornell). Turnovers: 24 (Eaddy 5, Mashack 5, Allen 2, Ammerman 2, Hotopp 2, Cornell, Kennedy, Papadopulous, Perry).
Steals: 12 (Eaddy 5, Ammerman 3, Kennedy 2, Saucedo 2).

CS NORTHRIDGE (100)
                      fg    ft    rb
               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tp
Oquinn          32  8-21 10-10   2-6  3  1   27
Taylor          16   0-3   7-8   6-6  1  2    7
Heinle          21   3-5   1-1   2-8  0  1    8
Minor           31  7-13   4-6   0-4  5  2   22
Higgins         20   5-8   2-4   3-7  2  4   12
Cross           19   2-5   0-1   0-3  3  4    4
Holmes          14   0-3   2-2   0-4  0  0    2
Grundy           7   0-0   1-2   0-0  3  5    1
Harper           2   0-0   0-0   0-0  0  0    0
Parris          26   7-7   3-8   4-6  4  2   17
Simmons         12   0-3   0-0   0-2  2  2    0
_______________________________________________
TOTALS         200 32-68 30-42 17-46 23 23  100
_______________________________________________

Percentages: FG-.471, FT-.714. 3-Point Goals: 6-22, .273
(Oquinn 1-8, Heinle 1-3, Minor 4-8, Cross 0-1, Holmes 0-2).
Team rebounds: 2. Blocked shots: 2 (Taylor, Holmes).
Turnovers: 26 (Higgins 5, Minor 5, Holmes 4, Heinle 3, Taylor 3, Cross 2, Parris 2, Grundy, Simmons).
Steals: 9 (Parris 3, Holmes 2, Minor 2, Heinle, Oquinn).

Loyola Marymnt 37 50 - 87 CsNorthridge 41 59 - 100
Technical fouls: Loyola Marymnt 1 (Bench).
A: 1,171.
Officials: Tom Nunez, J.b. Caldwell, Robby Mccoy.

Northridge next plays Ohio State on December 15th; LMU next plays Oregon December 13 at Oregon. We'll give you our predictions and analysis this week, time permitting.