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sports
49ers limp through
winter break
By Phil Witte
On-line Forty-Niner
It hasn't exactly
been a Winter Wonderland for Coach Wayne Morgan and the Long
Beach State men's basketball team since leaving campus in
December. With an overall record of 6-12 and a 2-5 mark in
the Big West Conference, the 49ers are only one game out of
the basement.
Despite losing Lemi Williams to a season ending injury, scoring
has not been a problem for the team, leading the Big West
at 72.2 points per game.
But defense, ball-handling and a lack of intensity have been
the team's biggest weaknesses. The Beach has allowed a conference-high
74.4 points per game, have been outrebounded in 11 of 18 games,
turned the ball over 18.2 times per game and allowed nine
opponents to shoot 50 percent or better from the floor.
After LBSU's victory Jan. 19 against Pacific, it embarked
on a tough four-game conference road trip, but can take solace
in the fact that five of its last seven games are in the usually
friendly confines of The Pyramid.
Jan. 19: Long Beach State 78, Pacific 74
Travis Reed's three-point play with 20 seconds to play, coming
off a rebound in the middle of a pack of Tigers after a Tony
Darden miss, iced a victory that kept the 49ers out of the
Big West cellar. The center recorded his sixth double-double
of the season, finishing with 19 points and 10 rebounds.
"That wasn't a monkey, that was a King Kong sized gorilla
we threw off our back tonight," Reed said. "This
was the first night we played together as a team for 40 minutes,
instead of just 10 or 20."
Jan. 17: CS Northridge 66, LBSU 54
CSUN broke a 51-51 deadlock by outscoring the 49ers 15-3 in
the final 4:41 to win going away at The Pyramid. Rudy Williams
starred for the 49ers with 11 points and nine rebounds.
Jan. 12: Utah State 70, LBSU 66
Eighteen points from Reed were not enough to knock off the
defending conference tournament winner in Logan, Utah, where
UCI had broken USU's 31-game home winning streak the game
before. Williams added 17 points and seven rebounds.
Jan. 10: Idaho 69, LBSU 67
Tony Darden missed a three-pointer with 1.5 seconds left that
would have pulled out the road win. The swingman had hit five-of-10
three-pointers up to that point. Williams recorded his third
double-double of the season with 15 points and 10 rebounds.
Jan 5: LBSU 68, Cal State Fullerton 60
The season's first conference win came at home against local
rivals CSF in a game in which the 49ers never trailed after
going up 16-14 in the first half. Kevin Roberts led LBSU with
17 points and five rebounds.
"We've been playing up and down in conference and we
played with more consistency tonight," Morgan said.
Jan. 3: UC Riverside 73, LBSU 67
Despite leading by as much as 12 points in the first half,
the 49ers again wilted in the second in losing to the Highlanders
at home for the first time in program history. Darden led
the 49ers with 17 points.
Dec. 29: LBSU 105, Indiana Purdue-Fort Wayne 70
The 49ers broke a six-game losing streak with this home win
against the Mastodons, a team in their first season in Division
I. Kevin Roberts and Vance Lawhorn both had season-highs,
with 21 and 15 points, respectively.
Dec. 22: UC Irvine 75, LBSU 69
The Big West campaign opened with a thud when the Anteaters
knocked off LBSU at the Bren Center despite the 49ers holding
reigning conference player of the year Jerry Green to 13 points.
"The league is going to be tough this year and it's important
to hold the home advantage," UCI Coach Pat Douglas said.
Dec. 18: Loyola Marymount 76, LBSU 68
The 49ers again lost at home for the first time ever to an
opponent, this time when the Lions used a strong second half
to win going away.
Dec. 15: Stanford 94, LBSU 77
After pulling to within one at 47-46 early in the second,
LBSU didn't have enough defense to stop the Cardinal, who
knocked off the 49ers for the second year in a row. Darden
lead LBSU with a season-high 24 points, the best game of any
49er this year.
Dec. 12: USC 86, LBSU 68
The 49ers never got closer than 12 down the stretch in losing
to Pac-10 power USC in front of a season-high crowd of 4,614
at The Pyramid.
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Cara
Garcia/On-line Forty-Niner
Ron Johnson and the rest of the 49ers are looking
for improvement.
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