Cal State Northridge puts an end to Rainbows’ season

Marcus Adams Jr. scored 21 points to lead Cal State Northridge to today’s 82-73 victory over Hawaii, ending the Rainbow Warriors’ season, in the Premier America on the Matadors’ campus.

In losing for the 10th time in the last 13 games, the ’Bows failed to qualify for next week’s eight-team Big West Tournament in Henderson, Nev. It was the first time they missed the tournament since joining the Big West in the 2012-13 season. (The tournament was not played in 2020 because of the pandemic.) The ’Bows, who finished 15-16 overall and 7-13 in the Big West, had their first losing record in conference play since 2012, when they were members of the Western Athletic Conference.

The Warriors entered this two-game road trip in seventh place, needing to defeat Cal State Bakersfield on Thursday or CSUN today. After losing to CSUB, they had two chances today: beat CSUN or Long Beach State upsetting Cal Poly. Neither occurred.

The ’Bows had a 39-33 lead over CSUN with 1:20 left in the first half. But Tom Beattie’s pass to Tanner Christensen was picked off by Tyler Beard. Christensen inadvertently fell onto Beard during the scramble. Christensen was assessed a flagrant-1 foul. Beard sank both free throws and, with CSUN awarded possession, Scotty Washington buried a 3 to close the Matadors to 39-38 at the intermission.

But the Matadors scored nine of first 11 points of the second half on two 3s and a three-point play. Later, a 12-0 run extended the Matadors’ lead to 63-50 with 12:05 to go.

The ’Bows were without forward Harry Rouhliadeff for most of the game after he appeared to suffer a shoulder injury in the game’s first three minutes.