IRVINE — The Cal State Northridge men’s basketball team is heating up at the right time.
The Matadors overwhelmed UC Irvine in the second half of their Big West showdown on Thursday night and ended a six-game losing streak to the Anteaters with an 84-72 victory at the Bren Events Center.
CSUN (19-7 overall, 11-4 Big West) also won its sixth in a row overall.
“I don’t want to jinx us but, yeah, we’re playing good basketball now and guys are starting to believe,” second-year CSUN head coach Andy Newman said. “When these guys put their minds on the defensive end, we can beat anybody. We proved that tonight.”
Marcus Adams Jr. scored 20 of his 24 points in the second half for Northridge, which outscored the Anteaters 50-35 after halftime.
“He’s a special talent, as you saw tonight,” Newman said of Adams, a former Harbor City Narbonne High standout who transferred to CSUN after playing one game at BYU last season. “He can score in bunches.”
Scotty Washington contributed 14 points, Tyler Beard scored 10 and Judson Martindale scored all 10 of his points off the bench in the first half for the Matadors.
Torian Lee was the best player for UCI. The freshman guard came in averaging three points per game, but he scored 20 off the bench and also distributed 10 assists.
Bent Leuchten added 18 points and Jurian Dixon finished with 11 for UCI (22-5, 12-3), which played without third-leading scorer Myles Che, who was suspended for a flagrant 2 foul against Hawaii last Saturday.
“We gave up 50 points in the second half, 50,” UCI coach Russell Turner said. “Marcus Adams dominated in the second half. Their rebounding dominated in the second half. Our big guys, in general, got dominated at the rim over and over again all night, and that’s been the formula for how teams have beat us.”
Wins certainly haven’t come easy of late for UCI, which won its first nine games of the season and its first seven conference games.
The Anteaters needed a last-second shot to beat UC Santa Barbara last Thursday, lost to UC San Diego by 18 on Feb. 8 to end a 22-game home winning streak and needed overtime to beat both Cal Poly and Long Beach State, two of the bottom teams in the conference.
The Anteaters led by three points at halftime Thursday, but neither team led by more until Dixon sank a wide-open 3-pointer for a 61-57 lead with 9:59 left.
Adams answered with back-to-back 3-pointers to move the Matadors back ahead for good at 63-61 with 8:09 remaining.
Grady Lewis then converted a three-point play for a 66-61 lead, and Adams sank another 3-pointer to make it 71-63 with 5:17 left.
Next up was a 3-pointer from Scotty Washington and the lead ballooned to 67-76 with 3:43 to go and UCI never got closer than seven down the stretch.
“Our defense was incredible,” Newman said. “Guys executing defensively, playing their hearts out, so proud of them. Just, man, incredible effort defensively by our guys tonight.”
Turner was assessed back-to-back technical fouls with 20 seconds left and was ejected.
“I got tossed out of the game, which is not that good a thing to do, especially after Myles did last game,” Turner said. “We’ve got to have a better sense of how it all fits together for us than I showed, than he showed, than our team showed.”
The Anteaters took a 37-34 lead into halftime thanks to Lee, who had not scored in double figures this season, but delivered 15 in the first half.
Lee earned additional playing time in the opening half after starter Justin Hohn was called for his second foul with 12:06 left.
The Matadors started slowly, missing nine of their first 10 shots, but then strung together a 9-0 run to move ahead 13-9.
After Hohn left with his second foul, Lee sank back-to-back 3-pointers to spark an 11-0 run that moved the Anteaters back ahead 24-17 with 8:10 left in the half.
“The first half was strange in how it unfolded with Justin getting two fouls and us having to play as long as we did without him,” Turner said. “I think that bothered him and it bothered us.”
Lee scored his final points of the half after faking a 3-point shot and driving to the basket for a layup to keep the lead at 33-29 with 2:24 left.
“When we had a lead at halftime, maybe we thought that we would assert ourselves, but instead CSUN asserted themselves on us,” Turner said.
The Matadors also received more than they expected off the bench from Martindale in the first half. Martindale, a 6-foot-7 wing who played the past two seasons at Pacific and his first two at Holy Cross, scored 10 points in the opening half.
Martindale came in averaging 2.9 points.
“He got the first opportunity and never looked back, so super proud of him,” Newman said.
BIG WEST STANDINGS
Through Thursday, Feb. 20
UC San Diego – 23-4, 13-2
UC Irvine – 22-5, 12-3
CS Northridge – 19-7, 11-4
UC Riverside – 18-10, 11-5
UC Santa Barbara – 17-10, 9-7
UC Davis – 15-12, 9-7
Hawaii – 14-12, 6-9
CS Bakersfield – 12-16, 6-10
Cal Poly (SLO) – 10-17, 4-11
Long Beach State – 7-20, 3-12
CS Fullerton – 6-22, 1-15