Men's
basketball splits two exhibition games
Travon
Free shoots a baby jump shot in the lane
in the 49ers exhibition win over Olympic
Club Sunday.
Jon
Cook/ On-line Forty-Niner
By
Daniel Frias
On-line Forty-Niner
The
Long Beach State men's basketball team opened
its 2003-04 season with two exhibition games.
The 49ers defeated Olympic Club, a club
basketball team from Irvine, on Sunday 83-81
at The Pyramid and Wednesday night lost
to Division II Cal State San Bernardino,
89-74.
The
49ers had a good first, outscoring the Olympic
Club 51-40. Freshman point guard Kevin Houston
out of Highland had a solid performance
scoring 16 points in the game. Sophomore
Jibril Hodges, who played point guard the
last half of the season last year, returned
to his natural spot at the shooting guard.
He finished with 15 points.
Hodges
said he feels more relaxed at the shooting
guard because he doesn't have the pressure
of running the point and feels the 49ers
key to winning is being able to score both
inside and outside.
"Tonight
we played more as a team," said Hodges.
"We moved the ball a lot more and had
more guys score in the paint. As long as
we work inside and out will be alright."
Wednesday's
game was a different story for the 49ers,
as they had no answer for Reynolds former
team CSUSB.
"The
difference between Division I and Division
II is the fact that they were playing with
seniors and we were playing with freshman,"
said head coach Larry Reynolds. "They're
an experienced team a nd that's tough to
guard against. There is a difference between
guarding fifth year seniors and guarding
first year players like we do in practice."
This
was the second time the two teams have met
in the preseason. The 49ers played the Coyotes
last season in an exhibition game that the
Coyotes won 61-53.
The
Coyotes were led by 6 foot 3 inch junior
Curtis Williams along with teammate senior
Jonathan Levy torched the 49ers throughout
the game dropping buckets all night.
Williams
went 5 for 8 from behind the three-point
line finishing the game with 25 points.
Levy also scored 25 points and made 50 percent
of his shots from the perimeter.
"It
feels good. I'm happy to be back on the
court," said Williams, who sat out
of all last season because he transferred
from Cerritos College.
"I
felt really confident. I had my legs and
I was just ready to play."
One
person who didn't need to be reminded of
how good a player Williams is was Reynolds.
"I
know exactly how great a player [Curtis]
is," said Reynolds, who left CSUSB
two years ago to coach the 49ers. "That's
why I recruited him two years ago. He's
a multi-faceted player."
Both
teams played a good first half trading shots
throughout the half until a 15-3 run late
in the first half gave the Coyotes a 50-36
halftime lead. The 49ers were leading the
Coyotes 33-32 with less than seven minutes
to play when Levy dropped a three-point
bomb that started the run.
"That
stretch at the end of the game was the difference
in the game...the first 12 to 15 minutes
were good," Reynolds said "Obviously
we had a lapse and couldn't get back into
the game.
Houston
started in his first Division I college
game and lead the team with 16 points. Sophomore
Jibril Hodges finished the game with 12
points shooting 3-8 from the field and 2-6
from the three-point line.
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