2nd-half
woes sink The Beach
By Karl Peterson
On-line Forty-Niner
The
Long Beach State men’s basketball team played
well enough to hang with the mighty UCLA
Bruins on Sunday, at least for the first
20 minutes anyway.
 Junior
transfer Darnell Thompson, in his first
start at point guard for the 49ers, led
the team in the first half as he was able
to penetrate the UCLA defense for scoring
opportunities, but it was not enough against
a team which hangs a record 11 championship
banners and has been to the NCAA Tournament
14 straight years on the strength of 14
straight 20-win seasons, falling to the
Bruins, 81-58.
The 49ers (1-4) were tied with the Bruins
(1-2) with just under seven minutes to play
before UCLA’s size and athleticism took
over. The Beach trailed UCLA, 32-25, at
the intermission in front of 6,358 fans
at Pauley Pavilion.
The Bruins’ halftime lead was in part due
to tremendous play from senior forward Jason
Kapono who had 15 first-half points on 7-of-10
shooting on his way to tying his career-high
28 points. Kapono, who is traditionally
an outside shooter, was able to take advantage
of his size and get easy shots in the paint
off rebounds and strong cuts to the hoop.
The first five minutes of the second half,
an integral part of any basketball game,
was all UCLA. The Bruins put together a
15-3 run early in the second half to open
up a 19-point — lead a run for which the
49ers had no answer.
Hot second-half shooting helped the Bruins,
but the real story was rebounds. UCLA out-rebounded
the 49ers staggeringly, 44-21, in the game
with help from sophomore guard Dijon Thompson
with nine boards and Kapono who chipped
in with seven. UCLA was taller at every
starting position, but was still able to
maintain the rebounding edge when Head Coach
Steve Lavin went with a smaller and quicker
lineup.
Darnell Thompson played well in the point
guard role — a position the 49ers have tinkered
with all season with little success. But
after a steal and almost sure breakaway
lay-up was blocked by UCLA’s Thompson midway
through the second half, the momentum would
never again sway in the direction of The
Beach.
Tony Darden led the 49ers with 14 points
but he was unable to get many good looks
at the basket. Darden, who may be getting
used to being the focus of opponents’ defense,
was smothered by Kapono and Ray Young and
was forced to take three-point jumpers from
way outside the three-point arc or force
shots on drives to the basket.
Sophomore forward Chris Jenkins also had
a notable game for The Beach, scoring 10
points on 4-of-8 shooting.
The 49ers will play next at home against
San Diego State tonight at 7:30 in The Pyramid.
The Aztecs (2-3) most recently played top-ranked
University of Arizona, losing 89-81 a valiant
effort considering the Wildcats are the
nation’s consensus No. 1 team.
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