Big West Conference

A season full of tribulation for Cal State Northridge will be wrapped in triumph. The Matadors lost two starters to off-court troubles during the season, but they are headed for the NCAA tournament after a 71-66 overtime victory over Pacific in the Big West Conference tournament title game Saturday night at the Anaheim Convention Center. The NCAA appearance will be Northridge's first since the 2001 team lost to Kansas in the first round and only the second Division I tournament appearance in school history.

UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo each won their Big West women's basketball tournament semifinal games Friday to advance to the championship today at the Anaheim Convention Center. Kristina Santiago's layup with 1.7 seconds was the difference as No. 3-seeded Cal Poly SLO (21-10) defeated No. 2 UC Riverside, 58-57. Santiago's basket capped a 7-0 run by the Mustangs in the final 2:58 to overcome a six-point deficit. The victory sends Cal Poly SLO into the final today at 1 p.m.

Jenna Breite made two free throws with five seconds remaining as Cal State Fullerton held off Pacific, 64-62, Thursday in the Big West Conference women's tournament. Cal State Fullerton (10-19) led most of the game before Pacific (14-16) battled back to tie the score late in the second half. Lauren Chow led the Titans with 17 points, and Megan Richardson added 14. The Titans play top-seeded UC Santa Barbara today at noon in a semifinal game.

A night after the Josh Akognon Show at the Big West Conference tournament, UC Santa Barbara didn't want to see a repeat of the Cal State Fullerton star's 37-point performance. The Gauchos already had caught his act in Titan Gym in February, anyway: That night, he scored 29 and brought Fullerton from 22 points behind to win. This time, Santa Barbara did what amounts to holding Akognon down.

BIG WEST CONFERENCE at Anaheim Convention Center Cal State Northridge (15-13) vs. UC Santa Barbara (16-14), 5:30 p.m., ESPNU -- The top-seeded Matadors are guaranteed a bid to the National Invitation Tournament because they won the Big West regular-season title. But they have their eyes on the school's first NCAA tournament appearance since 2001.

Cal State Fullerton's Josh Akognon has been double-teamed, face-guarded and hounded by box-and-one defenses. Yet the points haven't stopped coming. Akognon scored 41 against Hawaii, 24 against Wake Forest -- a team later ranked No. 1 -- and 41 again against Cal State Bakersfield.

Across Southern California, there are college basketball teams with records so dismal they might as well start talking about next year. Loyola Marymount is 1-16. UC Irvine is 4-11. Pepperdine, in its first season after the return of former coach Tom Asbury, is 4-13. It's a bit different at Long Beach State, where this year is looking pretty good -- and the words "last year" are forbidden. The 49ers, 6-25 last season, are 9-7 and lead the Big West Conference with a 4-0 record.

The Big West Conference baseball title will have to be shared, but it still tastes just as sweet to Long Beach State, considering how far the 49ers had to come to get it. Long Beach defeated Cal State Fullerton, 12-3, in the series finale Sunday at Blair Field in Long Beach, to win the regular season-ending series and forge a tie with the Titans for the conference title.

At college campuses across the nation, it wouldn't be March without serious talk of making it to the Big Dance. But at Cal State Fullerton? Not so much. It's been a generation and then some since Fullerton or any other Orange County school qualified for the NCAA basketball tournament, the end-of-season playoffs for the top 65 college hoop teams in the country.

It didn't take long for UC Davis to make an impact in the Big West Conference. The second-seeded Aggies earned a berth in today's tournament championship game against top-seeded UC Santa Barbara by defeating third-seeded UC Riverside, 63-53, Friday at the Anaheim Convention Center. UC Davis (19-10), in its first year as a member of the Big West Conference, battled the two-time defending Big West champion Highlanders (14-16) in a game that featured five ties and 11 lead changes. The Aggies outscored the Highlanders, 17-6, after trailing 47-46 with 6:54 left.