Staff Writer
On Wednesday, Jan. 30, the women’s basketball team won its sixth straight game beating Cal State Northridge 70-62 inside the Icardo Center.
For both teams this is the seventh time they played together. Last season the Matadors beat the ‘Runners 54-52 in Northridge.
Once the whistle was blown, both teams came out strong, and although the game was paused for a couple of minutes due to technical malfunctions, senior Amber Williams scored the first three points of the night in favor for CSUB. In addition, redshirt sophomore Janea Coffee gave the “Runners a total of 10 points and eight rebounds. Williams and redshirt sophomore Tyonna Outland scored 22 points each for the ‘Runners victory.
Even though the Matadors took an early lead, the ‘Runners had multiple fast break opportunities which allowed them the opportunity to end the first half with a 33-32 lead. The ‘Runners shot 40 percent from behind the three point line.
However, the enthusiasm went down when the second half started. The Matadors, who had lost three of the last four games, scored the first seven points and maintained the lead, but after 13 minutes of playing, Williams scored a three pointer, which tied the game at 54-54.
“We are just so excited, we are going to keep up this streak,” said Williams.
On different occasions, both of the teams suffered from missed opportunities. As the game progressed through the end of the second half, the Matadors scored seven points in the last 10 minutes of the game, while the ‘Runners scored 16 points in the last 6:46.
“Northridge is an excellent team. Their team beat No.12 in the nation, UCLA, so for us to come out and get this win, this is something we didn’t want to overlook any other games. We knew this was a game that we had to win in order to continue our streak, continue to keep it going, and we knew this game was going to be big,” said head coach Greg McCall. The ‘Runners closed the game with a total of 23 turnovers, while the Matadors had a total of 19.
For McCall, this is one of his biggest wins since he started coaching at CSUB. He also mentioned that he feels proud of how hard the ‘Runners have been playing and he knows that they are also proud of themselves.
“We are just going to keep playing like we did today and make adjustments which we still need, but we played really well tonight,” said Outland.
CSUB’s next home game will be against Chicago State on Feb. 16. at 7pm.
