Escaping its fire-ravaged surroundings in Los Angeles County, visiting Cal State Northridge surged through Hawai’i, 83-60, Thursday night in Big West Conference men’s basketball action.
A stunned crowd of 2,603 in SimpliFi Arena at the Stan Sheriff Center watched Scotty Washington score a game-high 24 points and Marcus Adams Jr. add 18 points as the Matadors improved to 12-6 overall and 4-3 in league play. True freshman point guard Aaron Hunkin-Claytor scored 10 points and made two steals in 20 minutes off the bench for the Warriors, who fell to 11-6, 3-3.
UH led 12-6 after Jerome Palm’s layup five minutes into the game, but PJ Fuller answered with a driving layup to ignite a punishing 26-9 run capped by Washington’s 3-pointer to put CSUN ahead, 32-21, with 3:14 remaining in the first half.
The Matadors took a 38-29 lead into halftime, and after Ryan Rapp began the second half with a layup 30 seconds in, Adams scored on a fast break layup to start a 23-8 run culminating in another fast break layup by Adams to put Northridge up, 61-39, with 11:15 left.
The Warriors could not get closer than 12 points the rest of the way.
“Disappointing, very disappointing, and surprising,” Hawai’i coach Eran Ganot said. “I’d be remiss if we didn’t give their program a lot of credit, their staff. They had a lot to do with that. We kind of got hit in the mouth, and didn’t respond. We haven’t had that happen to us a lot, and it’s tough when it does. But you gotta go through it and get back to work, and the belief in our program and our guys is still very high.
“Hopefully that happened for a reason, like we always believe.”
CSUN established its physicality early and often, not just at both ends of the court but also up and down while in transition with constant off-ball bumping and riding shoulder-to-shoulder. The strategy directly resulted in turnovers and otherwise disrupting the Warriors’ offensive flow.
“Credit to CSUN, they came out and they punked us,” said UH senior guard Ryan Rapp. “We knew it was going to be a physical game, we said it the whole time during the scout leading up to this game, (but) I think we underestimated how physical and tough they were. And that’s what happens when you just don’t come out ready to go.
“It starts with me — I wasn’t ready to go, I picked up two fouls early on. We just gotta be better across the board, and we’ll address it. We addressed it after the game, and we gotta address it tomorrow.”
The Matadors’ physicality was expressed on the stat sheet, too, as Northridge out-rebounded the Warriors, 40-25.
“They just came out with more energy than we did,” said Hawai’i guard Tom Beattie. “They had 14 offensive rebounds. That’s stuff we pride ourselves on, I think before the game we were 14th in the country in rebounding. (But) this was terrible, to say the least. We just weren’t ready.”
The Warriors complete their homestand against Cal State Bakersfield at 7 p.m. Saturday.
Big West Conference Standings
UC Irvine 6-0
UC San Diego 5-1
UC Santa Barbara 4-2
Cal State Northridge 4-3
UC Davis 4-3
Cal State Bakersfield 3-3
Long Beach State 3-3
HAWAI’I 3-3
UC Riverside 3-3
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo 0-7
Cal State Fullerton 0-7