Ian Boylan scored a career-high 31 points in leading Cal State Northridge
(12-15) to an 80-70 victory over Cal State Fullerton (11-17) in a first
round game at the Big West Conference Tournament Thursday evening at the
Anaheim Convention Center. Northridge shot an impressive .528 (28-53)
from the field for the game, including hitting 10 of 19 three-pointers
to move on to Thursday’s second round.
Boylan scored from all over the court, hitting 11-19 field goals, including
four three-pointers, while grabbing five rebounds and dishing out three
assists. Joseph Frazier added 20 ponts and Davin White 18 as the Matadors
scored 30 points off 19 Fullerton turnovers.
Pape Sow led the Titans with 21 points, while Bobby Brown added 16 and
Hardy Asprilla and Yaphett King had 10 each. Fullerton shot .417 (20-48)
from the field and was 24-32 at the free throw line, a statistic which
kept the Titans in the game the majority of the contest.
Leading 39-34 at the half, the Matadors slowly built a double-digit lead
in the second half. A Frazier dunk off a White assist with 14:08 left
gave Northridge a 57-42 lead. The Titans would fight back to pull to within
eight points, 59-51, with 11:14 left on a Sow layup, but the Matadors
would score the next five points and the lead would not go under 10 points
the remainder of the game.
Both teams played a very even first half, even though Fullerton only had
two leads in the half, at 2-0 and 4-3. Northridge led by as many as nine
points (25-16) before Sow and Brown led the Titans back to within one,
33-32, with 5:13 left. Sow had 11 first half points and Brown scored 12
of his 16 in the initial stanza. Fullerton was 12-16 at the free throw
line, but Northridge countered that by hitting 7-10 three-pointers in
the half.
Northridge was able to win the battle of the backboards by a 31-29 count.
Freshman Thomas Shewmake had a game-high 10 rebounds to go along with
his four points. Both Frazier and Boylan contributed five rebounds. Asprilla
led the Titans with seven rebounds.
Northridge moves on to Thursday’s second round where they will take
on the University of Idaho.
