49ers tame Lions with overtime win

By Eric Boyum, Online Forty-Niner

Thursday, November 19, 1998

LOS ANGELES - The Long Beach State men's basketball team needed overtime to gain its first victory of the season on Tuesday night by defeating Loyola Marymount 98-92.

The 49ers (1-1) trailed by as many as 14 points, but rallied late behind the solid play of all five starters. However, it was a reserve, senior forward D'Cean Bryant, who tied the game with a three-point shot from NBA range with only one second remaining.

"It's the stuff I live for and when it went in I was shocked," Bryant said.

So was the opening night crowd of 1,100 at Albert Gersten Pavillion, also known as Hank's House in memory of Hank Gathers, who died on the court from heart failure in 1990.

The Lions (0-1) actually led 80-74 with only 45 seconds to play, but three pointers by Antrone Lee and Bryant forced overtime.

In the five-minute session, 49er Ramel Lloyd took control of the game with multiple drives to the basket and by converting from the free throw line. He finished with 25 points despite a slow first-half start in which he missed seven of his first nine shots.

LBSU Head Coach Wayne Morgan addressed his approach to keeping Lloyd mentally in the game.

"Every time he does something negative he puts a knife in himself," Morgan said. "We try to encourage him to just keep playing. He thinks he has to play a perfect game and nobody plays a perfect game."

The Lions were led by 5-foot-4-inch point guard Haywood Eaddy, who scored 27 points.

"We let our home crowd down," Eaddy said. "We are trying to get the home atmosphere back to the way that Hank and Bo [Kimble] had it here. We gave the game away," he said.

The victory marks the 700th all-time win for LBSU basketball.