SoCal College Game News

Cal State Northridge Loses
to OSU 91 to 79--(November 20, 1997)

CSUN suffered it's second defeat by a Pac-10 school after losing Sunday to Arizona State; tonight they lost to a very good OSU team, which is, by most accounts underrated in most polls. They're really a lot better than most people think, and should finish above 7th in the Pac-10; maybe not much above that. . .ok, maybe only 6th. . .and then only if they get lucky. But tonight they didn't have much trouble disposing of Bobby Braswell's Matadors.

Coming into tonight's game, these two schools had met only once before, during OSU's famous 1980-81 season, when OSU ran off a 26-game winning streak and ended rated No.1 in the country. CSUN was OSU's second victory in the string that year. Oregon State has won 19 of its last 20 home openers (.950). Even though this was the earliest Oregon State had ever played a regular season basketball game, it didn't seem to faze them, as the rolled to a 12 point victory over the visiting Matadors. Even though OSU is projected to finish somewhere between 7th (Coaches Poll), 8th The (Sporting News) or dead last in 10th (Street & Smith's and Athlon Sports), it didn't stop Corey Benjamin from knocking down 23 points in 21 minutes, shooting 7-9 from the field and 8 for 8 from the line; OSU was led by . Grady, scoring 25 points, shooting 9-13 from the field, and 5-5 from the line.

This was not an especially pretty game: There was an astounding total of of 63 turnovers, 32 by Northridge, and 31 by OSU. Northridge tried to run it's fast break, but was plagued by terrible shooting. CSUN shot only 39% from the field compare to OSU's 55%.

CSUN was led by Greg Minor (6'-3" So. G, Canyon Country) with 27 points, but who only made 8 of 19 from the field, but shot a stellar 4 out of 5 on his three-point attempts.

This game had a major SoCal-Oregon flavor to it: Every single player on the CSUN roster is from SoCal with the single exception of standout 6'-9" center Brian Heinle, who is from Eugene, Oregon. On the OSU side, there is a major California contingent, with many from SoCal:

Deaundra Tanner (6'-2" Fr. G) from Inglewood High, Los Angeles: Tanner is a great shooter; he was All-CIF three years in a row, was the Bay League's MVP as both a junior and senior, and was rated 22nd on last year's Long Beach Press-Telegram's Best in the West. In a memorable game last year, he scored a triple-double (40 pts, 10 reb., 11 ast) against Leuzinger. Paul Pierce of Kansas and Jason Hart of Syracuse are former teammates from high school. Tonight, Tanner played 15 minutes, scored 6 points, went 4-5 from the line and had two steals.

Corey Benjamin (6'-5"So. G) North Riverside High, in Fontana CA: As noted above, Benjamin scored 23 points tonight, having a big game. According to OSU's official bio of Corey , he "may be the best athlete ever to wear an Oregon State men's basketball uniform...a great leaper...known for his acrobatic dunks...his game improved throughout last season as he strides for more consistency...shot improved immensely from the beginning of the season to the end...shot selection has improved...was considered for the John R. Wooden Award top 25 list, but was not selected...played for the NIT All-Stars in Japan during the summer, and averaged 14.5 points and shot 59 percent from the field." Of course, as a high school player at Fontana, he averaged 27.6 ppg and 11.5 rebs in his senior year, was named to USA Today's Second Team All-Americans, was selected for the .Long Beach Press-Telegram Best in the West, as the No. 1 player, was voted Cal-Hi Magazine's Player of the Year, became a McDonald's All-American team member, and in short grabbed almost every honor bestowed on a high school player his senior year.

Sonny Benjamin (6'-6" Sr., F) North Riverside High, Fontana, CA: a very credible and fundamentally sound player, not quite the star that his brother Corey is, he has been known lately more for his defense than his offense. He played 20 minutes tonight, had two steals, 3 turnovers, and only 6 points. In high school Benjamin lettered and started all four years, and led North to the CIF title game as a senior, averaging 17 points, 10 rebounds, six assists and two blocked shots per game. In his senior year, he was voted 12th on the Long Beach Press Telegram Best in the West list.

Here's the stats for the evening:

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