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sports:
men's basketball
Men's basketball
take third-place seeding
By Phil Witte
On-line Forty-Niner
After spending
the past few weeks fine-tuning the running game, Long Beach
State showed it can still win the power game in knocking off
Pacific 82-72 Sunday afternoon at The Pyramid.
LBSU finished the
season with an overall record of 18-12 and a 10-6 mark in
the Big West Conference, good for a third place finish and
a match-up with sixth-place Boise State (16-13, 8-8) Thursday
in the first round of the conference tournament.
Pacific (16-11,
8-8) will face off against UC Santa Barbara (13-14, 9-7) in
the last quarterfinal in the first round. First-place UC Irvine
(24-3, 15-1) takes on Cal Poly (9-18, 3-13) and Utah State
(24-5, 13-3) will begin its conference tournament title defense
against Cal State Fullerton (4-12, 3-13).
"It was a
very physical game and I'm happy to come out with a win,"
Head Coach Wayne Morgan said. "The kids had a tremendous
year, and, given our injuries and the adversity we faced,
we're very happy to finish third."
The 49ers won the
battle of the boards, pulling down 47 to Pacific's 35. Kevin
Roberts tied a career best with his game-high nine rebounds,
the third time in a month the freshman has led the team.
With every other
team in the conference finished with the regular season, Rock
Lloyd entered the game needing 36 points to win the Big West
scoring title over UCI's Jerry Green. Early on, it looked
as though it would not be his night, as the 6-foot-4 senior
kept hitting the front rim on his shots.
By the end of the
first half he found his touch and hit three straight threes
at one point, finishing the half with 15 points. In the second,
Pacific's Peter Heizer guarded Lloyd so closely they resembled
Siamese twins, and Lloyd finished with only a game-high 29
points, seven points shy of a first career collegiate scoring
title.
"It would
have been a good defense if we were playing football,"
Lloyd said.
Neither team dominated
in a physical first half until LBSU broke open a 20-20 game
with a 8-0 run, led by Lloyd and Ron Johnson's outside shooting.
The Tigers responded with a 7-0 run of its own, but the 49ers,
helped by a technical foul call of Pacific Head Coach Bob
Thomason, finished the half strong and led 37-32 at the break.
The second half
was more physical than the first and the referees seemed to
call a foul on every body contact, putting both teams in the
double bonus with over seven minutes left in the game. With
both teams camping out at the line, the 49ers took full advantage,
having its best night of the season at the charity stripe,
knocking down 24 of 29, compared with Pacific's 19 of 31.
Eight points from
Johnson paced the 49ers to start the second, and the lead
was in double digits four minutes in. The Tigers twice cut
the lead to five, but both times The Beach quickly pushed
the margin back to 10 with either a Lloyd three-point play
or a long-range bomb.
The 49ers got a
scare when Pacific's David Bunts crashed into Grant Stone's
leg while chasing a loose ball. The senior left the game briefly,
but was able to return and relieve Travis Reed, who spent
most of the second half on the bench in foul trouble.
"He dove into
my leg and hyperextended my knee, but the doctors don't think
there is any ligament damage," Stone said. The 6-foot-8
forward finished with only two points and five rebounds, but
made contribution on the other end of the court, holding Pacific's
second leading scorer Mike Hahn to four points.
With 1:16 to play
the 49er lead was 77-65, and Morgan had the opportunity to
give each of the four graduating seniors a standing ovation
send-off from the 1,968 in attendance.
For the 49ers,
Johnson finished with a season-high 17 points, Reed had 11
points and seven rebounds, and Lemi Williams finished with
10 and seven.
Heizer led the
Tigers with 15 points and Maurice McLemore added 13. Mike
Hahn had a team-high six rebounds and Jono Metzger-Jones had
a game-high six assists.
The 49ers split
the season series with first round opponent Boise State, losing
79-77 in overtime in Boise on Jan. 13 and winning 80-62 at
The Pyramid on Feb. 14.
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Alexander
Gordon/ On-line Forty-Niner
