Men’s
basketball vs. UCI
By Gina Ponce
On-line Forty-Niner
 The
Long Beach State men’s basketball team ended
its season with yet another loss.
This time the victory was UC Irvine’s 95-60
on Saturday.
The 49ers finished 5-22 overall and 4-14
in the Big West conference, while the Anteaters
placed second in conference with a record
of 19-8 overall and 13-5 in the Big West.
The Beach had its biggest lead of the game
during the first half at 26-17. Jordan
Harris helped UC Irvine to tie the game
at 26-26 with six points of his own.
Harris knocked down nine more points before
the half was over to bring his total to
20 points and to contribute to the Anteaters
outscoring the 49ers 15-4.
Head Coach Larry Reynolds said the 49ers
played well for about the first ten minutes
of the game but when UCI came out in the
second half they did not miss a shot and
Long Beach was not defending.
With Long Beach shooting just .300 from
the field in the second half, it was UC
Irvine’s court for the remainder of the
game. The Anteaters started the second
half strong by scoring the first nine points
and continuing to outscore the 49ers in
the first six minutes of the half 26-2.
“It was a matter of us withstanding a charge
from a very good team,” Reynolds said.
“They had a lot to play for and we had very
little to play for.”
This allowed UCI to jump overwhelmingly
into the lead at 69-37. Despite senior
guard Tony Darden’s attempts to keep Long
Beach alive with his game-high 27 points,
UC Irvine kept the momentum up to widen
the lead to 39 points at one time in the
game at 80-41.
Long Beach shot .345 from the field overall
in the game, but UCI went beyond that to
shoot .521 from the field. The Anteaters
also showed victory in the rebounding category
of the game, out-rebounding the 49ers 46-26.
Long Beach had 11 turnovers for the game
to UC Irvine’s seven.
Vance Lawhorn and Jibril Hodges both finished
with nine points for the Beach, and center
Alex Graham, who played his first 49er game,
contributed four points and seven rebounds.
Darden was the only 49er to score in the
double digits for the game.
Reynolds said the team did not play very
well at all during the season. He
said physically the team was talented enough
to compete in the conference, but they did
not keep themselves ready to play for six
months.
In the 66 game series between UCI and Long
Beach State there has never been a larger
margin of victory than Saturday’s 35 points.
This summer the 49ers will work on having
more mental toughness throughout the whole
game for next season, Reynolds said.
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