University of California, Riverside
Cal-State Northridge
Matadors Defeat Highlanders, 76-62
1/9/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
The host Cal State Northridge Matadors used an outstanding second-half effort to break a two-point halftime lead into an 76-62 victory over the visiting UC Riverside Highlanders at the Matadome in Northridge Monday.
The Matadors improved to 6-6 overall and 1-1 in the Big West, while the Highlanders dropped to 2-2 in the Big West and to 2-12 overall.
Junior guard Dedrick Bates led the Highlanders with 12 points on 5-of-16 shooting, and freshman forward Christian Soto had 11 points and six rebounds and sophomore guard Larry Cunningham had 11 points and four rebounds. Senior David Misko had career highs of nine points and nine rebounds. UCR shot 33.3% (18-of-54) on the night and were outrebounded 46-38.
For the Matadors, junior guard Mike Efevberha was held scoreless in the first half, but tallied a game-high 16 points in the second half to lead all scorers. Calvin Chitwood, Rob Haynes and Terrell Jones each had 12 points. Northridge was 42.3% (30-of-71) from the field.
The Highlanders didn't make a field goal for the first 7:52 of the game, then scored three in under a minute as Misko scored a put-back, Larry Cunningham drained a jumper and Bates stole a pass and laid it in to give the Highlanders an 11-9 lead at 11:29.
The Matadors led by seven at 22-15 with 5:37 left, but Soto scored five straight points on a field goal and a trio of free throws and Bates scored a pair to help the Highlanders on an 11-4 run, capped off by a layup by Richard Cobbs from Porter with 1:10 left to tie the score at 26-26. A Chitwood layup gave the Matadors back the lead seconds later, and neither team could sink a shot in the final minute as the Matadors led by two entering the intermission.
UCR struggled with their shooting, going 9-of-34 (26.5%) from the field in the first half and 0-of-11 from the three-point line. The Matadors were 12-of-32 (37.5%) and just 1-of-7 (14.3%) from the three-point line. Neither Porter nor Efevberha, coming off of 40 and 39 point games respectively in their last games, scored in the first half.
UCR cut the second half lead to one at 28-27 on a Misko free throw, but the Matadors scored nine straight points to build a 10-point lead at 37-27 with 18:01 left. The margin built to as many as 19 before finishing at 14 at 76-62.
The Highlanders were without senior guard Steve Williams (sprained ankle) and freshmen guards Chris Johnson and Sean Cunningham and forward Benoit Bekono (academic eligibility).
