CSUN v. Pepperdine

This game was not a close as the score looks. Huh? 15 points? It was worse. Or better. Depending upon whether you're a Matador fan or a Wave fan.

If you are a CSUN fan, then you loved this game. Derrick Higgins scored 17 points, shooting 8 of 9 from the field, and 1 of 3 of his foul shots. Jabari Simmons scored 16 points and had 13 boards. Mike O'Quinn, the king of the suspensions, scored 14 points in his first game back, and Greg Minor had 13 and 4 assists. And the bench was hot too: Trenton Cross scored 12 points and had three steals. Brian Heinle had 12 rebounds and 6 points. Was there anybody who didn't have double figure shots or boards? While Northridge only led by 7 at the half, 30-37, at one point before garbage time, Northridge led by as many as 24 points. If you're a Matador, it was heaven.

On the other hand, if you follow Pepperdine, it was hellacious, almost like a repeat of last year's dismal performances. Deja' vu all over again. Pepperdine only shot 38% , making only 28 of 72 shots from the field. And a whole lot of those were blown lay-ups by Jelani Gardner, ommA' Givens and Tommie Prince.

There were a few bright spots for the waves. Gerald Brown, back after sitting out last year with an injury, scored 19 points, and even with their fairly pathetic performances, both Jelani and Tommie had 14 points a piece, Prince with 7 boards and Gardner with 6 assists. But the rest of the Waves literally stunk up the gym. Oh yeah, they call it the "Matadome" now. It's still a gym.

Look at these performances: ommA' Givens, god's gift to the post play, who would be racking up the big numbers if he was still playing with UCLA, played 17 minutes and had only 4 points. Four points! Hill played 29 minutes, more than half the game, and only had 4 points. Fomby played 13 minutes and had 0, as in no, points, as did McDowell, playing 11 minutes with no points either. Unbelievable.

And the defense was even worse for Pepperdine. Like a sieve. Romar's gotta go back to the drawing board. And Pepperdine doesn't have it any easier with their next opponent, Cal State Fullerton. That game will be played Tuesday night, December 2, at Pepperdine at 7:00 p.m. At least it's a home game. Fullerton beat Loyola tonight 98-94, lost its opener to Utah 59-87, beat Norfolk St 83-57 and beat Lewis-Clark St. 86-46. Fullerton is now 3-1 in regular season play, 5-1 if you count the exhibition season. Pepperdine is now 3-1, having defeated UC Irvine 50-46, Norfolk St. 99-57, and Wisconsin 77-66.

As for CSUN, they are 1-2, having lost to two Pac-10 opponents in their first two games: Arizona St 91-97, and at Oregon St 79-91. CSUN's next game is Tuesday night at 7:00 pm at San Diego State, which itself is 2-1, having lost it's opener to Stanford handily by 30 points, 57-87, and having rebounded in the next two, beating San Jose State (which may be the worst team in Division I, and certainly has the losingest coach in Stan Morrison) by 40 points, 81-41, and defeated Northern Arizona State by a score of 73-68.

PEPPERDINE (66)
                      fg    ft    rb
               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tp
Prince          32  6-15   0-0   1-7  2  4   14
Hill            29   2-5   0-2   1-6  0  0    4
Givens          17   2-6   0-0   1-4  1  3    4
Gardner         31  5-16   3-4   1-1  6  4   14
Brown           37  8-17   1-3   1-5  3  4   19
Fomby           13   0-3   0-0   1-2  1  0    0
Sheppard         1   0-0   0-0   0-0  0  0    0
Archie           3   1-1   0-0   0-0  0  0    3
Gibbs           26   4-8   0-0  3-10  2  2    8
Mcdowell        11   0-1   0-0   1-1  0  0    0
_______________________________________________
TOTALS         200 28-72   4-9 10-36 15 17   66
_______________________________________________

Percentages: FG-.389, FT-.444. 3-Point Goals:
6-15, .400 (Prince 2-5, Gardner 1-4, Brown 2-4,
Archie 1-1, Gibbs 0-1). Team rebounds: 3. Blocked
shots: 4 (Prince 2, Brown, Gibbs). Turnovers: 17
(Brown 4, Gibbs 3, Givens 3, Fomby 2, Gardner 2,
Mcdowell, Prince). Steals: 8 (Prince 3, Brown 2,
Gibbs 2, Hill).

CS NORTHRIDGE (81)
                      fg    ft    rb
               min   m-a   m-a   o-t  a pf   tp
Oquinn          32  6-16   2-2   0-5  4  2   14
Simmons         30  6-10   3-4  6-13  0  2   16
Taylor          11   0-1   0-0   0-3  0  4    0
Minor           27  4-11   4-4   0-0  4  2   13
Higgins         23   8-9   1-3   2-5  3  1   17
Cross           23  5-10   0-1   0-1  2  2   12
Holmes           1   0-1   0-0   0-0  0  0    0
Grundy          14   0-2   0-0   0-1  5  1    0
Heinle          20   3-6   0-0  1-12  3  1    6
Parris          19   1-2   1-2   1-5  0  1    3
_______________________________________________
TOTALS         200 33-68 11-16 10-45 21 16   81
_______________________________________________

Percentages: FG-.485, FT-.688. 3-Point Goals: 4-16, .250 (Oquinn 0-5, Simmons 1-1, Minor 1-5, Cross 2-3, Heinle 0-2). Team rebounds: None. Blocked shots: 7 (Simmons 3, Higgins 2, Oquinn, Grundy). Turnovers: 15 (Oquinn 3, Taylor 3, Cross 2, Parris 2, Heinle, Higgins, Minor, Simmons). Steals: 9 (Cross 3, Higgins 2, Minor 2, Grundy, Parris).

Pepperdine 30 36 - 66 Cs Northridge 37 44 - 81

Technical fouls: None. A: 2,013.

Officials: Mike Eggers, Deron White.

High Scorers: Pepperdine - Gerald Brown 19, Jelani Gardner 14, Tommie Prince 14
CSUN - Derrick Higgins 17, Jabari Simmons 16, Mike O'Quinn14

High Rebound: Pepperdine - Kelvin Gibbs 10, Tommie Prince 7
CSUN - Jabari Simmons 13, Brian Heinle 12

High Assists: Pepperdine - Jelani Gardner 6, Gerald Brown 3
CSUN- Lucky Grundy 5, two others with 4.