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sports
49ers emerge
from home coma
By Phil Witte
On-line Forty-Niner
Just when it seemed
the Long Beach State men's basketball team had been left for
dead at the side of the road, a combination of youthful energy
and veteran leadership inspired the team's first four-game
winning streak in more than a year, punctuated by two come-from-behind
home wins this weekend.
On Saturday, Travis Reed scored 25 points and Ron Johnson
had 23 to pace the 49ers (12-16 overall, 8-9 Big West Conference)
to an 83-80 overtime win over Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (14-10,
8-8) before a season-high crowd of 3,401 at The Pyramid.
On Thursday, it
was freshman Cody Pearson and sophomore Kevin Roberts' hard
work on the boards that gave LBSU a 38-26 rebounding edge
in a hard-fought 77-74 win over UC Santa Barbara (15-9, 9-6)
before 1,912 at The Pyramid.
To emphasize the point that nothing comes easy for The Beach,
both games ended with the opponents missing a three-pointer
at the buzzer that would have tied each game,
"Maybe some people packed it in for us, but we never did,"
Johnson said.
In overtime Saturday, Chris Jenkins hit a three-pointer with
48 seconds left to put LBSU up for good.
But the game was not without controversy, with the officials
taking Mustang points off the scoreboard in overtime. With
three second left on the 35-second clock, Johnson blocked
a Steve Geary shot, but the Mustang guard got the deflection
back, and made his second attempt.
The 49ers inbounded the ball and brought it upcourt, but coach
Wayne Morgan convinced the referees to verify the play with
the official scorer.
The system in The Pyramid has a weak whistle as a shot clock
violation indicator, rather than the usual obnoxious buzzer,
and the officials verified that the clock had expired before
the shot attempt, and took the points off the board.
"I thought I was playing against the Soviet Union," Mustang
coach Kevin Bromley said, referring to the 1972 Olympic game
in which officials gave the USSR three attempts to defeat
the USA.
"I guess I'm just not smart enough to figure that one out,"
he said. "It's their job to watch the clock."
The play overshadowed clutch play by the 49ers.
To even get the game into overtime, the 49ers erased an eight-point
deficit with 1:30 to play on a three-point play from Roberts,
two free throws from Reed, and a three-pointer from Johnson.
"We were down almost the whole game, but were able to overcome
at the end," Morgan said.
After playing much of the first half in a stupor, the 49ers
awoke near the end, going on a 9-0 run paced by two Michael
Darrett layups to pull within three before going into the
break down 39-34.
Michael Darrett
recorded a season-high 10 assists for the game.
Geary finished with a team-high 18 points and David Henry
added 17.
Thursday's win was sweet revenge for the 49ers, erasing an
embarrassing 82-50 loss at UCSB last month.
"It was a great win for the kids tonight," Morgan said. "It
was a blood and guts game and they made the plays and shots
tonight."
With LBSU down, 69-65, Travis Reed and Pearson both scored
layups to tie the game at 69-69.
On the next offensive possession, Tony Darden missed a long
jump shot, but Pearson came down with the ball amid a crowd
of Gauchos and put back the rebound to put the 49ers up, 71-69.
After an exchange
of misses, a Ron Johnson foul put Branduinn Fullove on the
line with 30 seconds left to play. Fullove missed both shots
and Roberts pulled down the rebound.
With the 49ers up, 73-71, with 15.2 seconds left, Johnson
stood at the charity stripe with two shots. He made the first
and missed the second, but Pearson again outjumped the Gauchos
and pulled down the board before kicking the ball out to Johnson,
who was fouled again.
"Wayne surprised me by playing Cody at the four and putting
him on Mark Hull," UCSB coach Bob Williams said. "We did not
do a good job of getting to their shooters."
Pearson finished with only seven points, but pulled down a
career-high nine rebounds, including seven on the offensive
end.
A three-pointer from Hull pulled UCSB within three, but a
Jacoby Atako trey at the buzzer clanged off the rim.
After the game ended, Atako and Darden exchanged words and
the benches cleared, but no punches were thrown. Tempers had
been flaring during the game, flamed by a flagrant foul by
Roberts on Nick Jones and an exchange between UCSB's Adama
Ndiaye and Pearson.
UCSB had led by as many as 11 in the first and were up, 48-40,
at the half, but a 14-0 LBSU run in the second shifted the
momentum to The Beach.
"The only thing we had on the blackboard this week was: 'UCSB
- 50 rebounds, LBSU - 30 rebounds,' that was our inspiration,"
Morgan said, referring to the margin in the earlier game.
Hull finished with a team-high 21 points and Fullove had 20.
The 49ers finish
out the season this Thursday at 5:35 p.m. against defending
Big West champion UC Irvine (20-8, 13-4).
At 8-9, the 49ers sit seventh in the Big West, with almost
no chance at falling to eighth, but with an even slimmer chance
to move up.
Pacific, Cal State Northridge and UCSB are all tied for third
at 9-7 and would have to lose twice, and Cal Poly is a half-game
up on The Beach, but close out the year against the conferences
cellar dwellers.
Almost guaranteed is a first round match-up against either
UC Irvine or Utah State (21-4, 13-3) in the Big West tournament,
held March 7-9 at the Anaheim Convention Center.
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Cara
Garcia/On-line Forty-Niner
Cody Pearson brings the ball up during the 49ers'
83-80 win over Cal Poly SLO.
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