It was looking too easy for first-place UCSB on Wednesday night against a Cal State Northridge team that’s fighting for a higher position in the Big West men’s basketball standings before the conference tournament.
The Gauchos were cruising right along, opening a 26-point lead in the second half. Then Northridge decided to make a game of it.
UCSB had its lead whittled to two points in the last 25 seconds but managed to stave off the tenacious Matadors with some clutch free-throw shooting by James Powell and escaped with a 74-69 victory before 2,049 at the Thunderdome.
It was the sixth straight win for the Gauchos (17-8) — their longest since the 2007-08 season — and their fifth in a row in Big West play. They remain on top of the conference standings with a record of 11-3 with two games left in the regular season.
Northridge, which was the last team to beat the Gauchos, falls to 10-18 and 5-8 in the Big West. The Matadors are in seventh place.
The Matadors turned a one-sided game into a thriller by turning up their defensive pressure, crashing the boards and attacking the rim to get to the free-throw line.
“They got the game scrambled as they wanted it,” UCSB coach Bob Williams said of the Matadors. “They got it scrambled enough where we didn’t maintain our composure very well and we got sloppy with some transition opportunities. Some of the decisions we made in transitions were not very good decisions.
“We’re just trying to be a little too cute on some of our passes. You need them to come to you, you don’t need to be forcing the action and forcing the mistakes, and at times we forced it by trying to make the great pass that leads to the great dunk.”
When the passes worked, the Gauchos threw down some impressive dunks. Orlando Johnson had three dunks in the second and completed a perfect alley-oop pass to James Nunnally for a highlight-reel slam in the first half.
A monster slam by Johnson off a Northridge giveaway during a 13-0 run gave UCSB a 46-21 lead early in the second half. The Gauchos’ biggest lead was 47-21 with 13:49 left in the half.
Northridge got back into the game behind scoring of guard Kenny Daniels, who poured in 25 points. He tallied nine points during an 11-2 run to cut the deficit to nine 51-42 with 7:41 to play.
“We knew we were going to get their best effort,” said Johnson, who after missing all five of his shots in the first half, made five of his last seven and sank all eight of his free-throw attempts for a team-high 19 points. He also had seven assists. “They really stepped up to the challenge in the second half. The first half they were asleep, we all know that.”
UCSB took advantage of 16 Northridge turnovers in the first half and took a 32-17 lead at halftime. Nunnally scored 10 of his 15 points in the first half.
The Matadors forced the Gauchos into 15 turnovers in the second half and got big performances from Daniels, who scored 20 points in the half, and forward Willie Galick, who scored all 11 of his points in final 20 minutes.
Galick made a big play to cut the Gaucho lead to two, 69-67 with 25.7 seconds left in the game. On a UCSB inbounds play, he bodied 7-3 Greg Somogyi away from the ball, stole the pass and drove to the other end, where he was fouled while shooting. He made both free throws.
“We did get rattled,” Williams said. “We had some retaliatory-type situations or fouls. We let the physicalness of the game get to us a little bit. (Northridge coach) Bobby (Braswell) did a nice job of getting the game scrambled up. Having Will Brew in foul trouble didn’t help on that.”
With Brew having to sit for much of the game, the Gauchos were minus a good ballhandler.
But they were able to recover with the help of strong play from players like Johnson, Jaime Serna and James Powell.
Serna scored 15 points, including a key 3-point play on a Northridge goaltending call with 1:19 left to give UCSB a 69-62 lead.
“He played like a monster tonight. I was glad to see that,” said Johnson of Serna.
Powell was money from the free-throw line during crunch time, sinking four in the last 22.1 seconds. He was 8-for-8 from the line and finished with 17 points off the bench.
“He’s big-game James,” said Johnson. “Nothing changes there for him. He’s been doing this for a long time. We believe in him all the way.”
“The team had enough discipline to get the ball in James’ hand late,” Williams said. “I don’t know about anybody else in the gym, but I know everybody on our bench knows James Powell is going to make those free throws.”
There were 55 fouls called in the game and the teams combine for 70 free throws.
