Andy Newman took over a broken down men’s basketball program last April and not only made Cal State Northridge run again, but the Matadors quickly became one of the most flashy, durable and efficient teams in the Big West Conference.
Newman’s highly successful first season as head coach at CSUN came to an end on Thursday night with a 75-68 loss to third-seeded Hawaii in a quarterfinal of the Big West Tournament in Henderson, Nevada.
The Rainbow Warriors (20-13) advanced to play second-seeded UC Davis (19-12) in the late semifinal on Friday night (approx. 8:30 p.m.).
Meanwhile, the seventh-seeded Matadors (19-15) can finally sit back and admire and appreciate the alterations they brought to a program that combined for 14 wins the previous two seasons.
“That CSUN team played their hearts out, played their hearts out (Wednesday) night, played their hearts out tonight, just gave everything they could,” Newman said. “Man, so proud of their effort. Wish we would have made a couple more baskets down the stretch, but super proud of what they gave.”
After four successful seasons at Cal State San Bernardino, Newman was named the fourth Northridge head coach in six seasons last April and immediately persuaded four returning players to give him a chance, while seven others headed elsewhere.
“The guys who decided to come back and play for me, we have a special bond that they would trust me with their senior years,” Newman said. “That’s pretty big, so this (loss) was especially tough for me, personally.”
Little attention was paid when Northridge led Stanford with 2½ minutes left in its season opener in November, nor when the Matadors picked themselves up after that loss and won three days later at Idaho.
All of that changed when Northridge knocked off UCLA, 76-72, on Dec. 19 at Pauley Pavilion and the Matadors rode that high to a 3-0 start in conference play, capped by a 10-point win against visiting Hawaii.
Another 4-0 run in the middle of conference play firmed up their spot in the eight-team tournament and CSUN went on to beat sixth-seeded UC Santa Barbara in overtime on Wednesday night for its first postseason win since 2014.
The Matadors looked like they were in a position to keep their run alive when Dionte Bostick scored on a backdoor cut to trim the lead to 68-66 with 2:35 remaining in the game, but Hawaii scored the next four points and the Matadors never got back within a possession.
“Came out on fire with a lot of gas and made some great plays to start the game and just ran out of gas,” Newman said. “It’s tough because as a competitor, you’re just built to always be pushing and trying to get that next victory.”
De’Sean Allen-Eikens had 22 points and nine rebounds to lead CSUN, which was picked to finish 10th out of 11 teams in the preseason coaches’ poll.
Bostick added 18 points and Keonte Jones finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds for the Matadors, who showed their fatigue in the second half by missing all nine of their 3-point attempts.
Justin McKoy scored 16 points to lead four players in double figures for Hawaii, which has won four in a row.
The Matadors tipped off about 19 hours after they outlasted UCSB in overtime in their tournament opener.
“That was really a tough turnaround for our guys,” Newman said. “I thought we came out early and showed some intensity and passion, but (the short rest) was certainly a factor, knowing that we had finished a game and were tipping one off 18 hours later.”
CSUN jumped out to an early 8-2 lead before Hawaii evened the score at 20-20 on a 3-pointer by Harry Rouhliadeff.
Hawaii eventually outscored the Matadors 10-4 over the final 3½ minutes to take a 36-30 lead into the break.