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sports
Beach defensive
rests in 100-81 loss to Charlotte
By Ben Dimapindan
On-line Forty-Niner
Everyone - the
coaches, players and fans - showed up on time to the Long
Beach State men's basketball home opener Saturday at The Pyramid,
but LBSU's defense did not arrive until the second half.
The University of North Carolina-Charlotte guards were able
to drain a flurry of three-pointers against The Beach's perimeter
defense in the first half and continued their accurate shooting
in the second half to hand LBSU (2-2) a 100-81 loss.
"We thought we were a good defensive team, but after
this game we'll have to go back to the drawing board and work
even harder on our defense," LBSU center James Williams
said.
The Beach's Ron Johnson scored 11 of his team-high 21 points
in the first half, but Charlotte's starting backcourt duo
of Demon Brown and Jobey Thomas outplayed everyone else on
the floor for the first 20 minutes of the game.
Brown, who nailed five-of-seven from beyond the arch, and
Thomas lit up the perimeter and combined to tally 35 points
for Charlotte (2-1) in the first half.
LBSU forward Travis Reed, who was anchoring the 49er offense
in the paint, picked up a costly third foul and left the game
with just under five minutes remaining in the half. The Beach
only managed to score seven points in his absence.
"Charlotte was offensively unforgiving in the first half,"
Head Coach Wayne Morgan said. "Eighty-one points are
[usually good] enough to pick up a win, but our defense was
poor, particularly in the first half.
"We're a work in progress. Our team is getting better
and improving [game by game]."
Trailing by 26 points at halftime, The Beach followed the
example of Williams and stepped up its defensive intensity.
Williams muscled his way through Charlotte's interior defense
to score 12 points in the second half, in addition to recording
a pair of steals, dishing out an assist and grabbing two rebounds.
In addition, LBSU guard Tony Darden scored 10 points to go
along with four assists, while Charlotte's Brown led all scorers
with 27 points.
However, Charlotte maintained their sharp shooting, making
65.2 percent of its field goals and going a perfect four-for-four
from behind the three-point line.
"Long Beach is a dangerous team, well balanced with Williams
and Reed inside and I was really surprised with how well we
played," Charlotte coach Bobby Lutz said. "Then
they changed their defense on us in the second half and that
really slowed us down."
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