Men's basketball wins five in a row

The Cal State Long Beach men's basketball team struggled to put away UC Irvine (1-20) Thursday night (Febraury 18th) at The Pyramid. The 49ers won 89-63, but the game was much closer than the score indicated.

CSULB seemed to show no signs of taking UCI, the Big West Conference door mat, seriously. The 49ers had to score the last six points of the first half just to head into the locker room with a narrow 37-36 advantage.

Guard Brandon Titus helped keep the 49ers in the game with 15 of his 22 points in the first half. As the second half wore on, the Anteaters' constant turnovers helped widen the margin. UCI committed 26 costly turnovers, while the 49ers protected the ball relatively well with only 12 turnovers in the game.

James Cotton helped rally the team with 16 points in the second half . The 49ers' offense scored 52 points in the final 20 minutes of play to put the game out of reach. UCI Head Coach Rod Baker has only one win (1-21) this season and is 52-112 in his career with the Anteaters.

Then on Saturday (February 20th) The 49er basketball team won its fifth in a row in a 72-61 win over Cal State Fullerton, improving their record to 12-12 on the season.

CSULB had been picked to finish first in the Big West Conference this season but had managed to win just 7 of 19 games heading into their game with Utah State University on Feb. 8. The 49ers are now in second place in the Western Division.

"We're coming together as a unit, we're starting to learn how to play with each other," 49er James Cotton said.

Cotton scored 27 points despite having to sit out much of the second half due to foul trouble. The 49ers previous loss to Cal State Fullerton on Jan. 13, a game in which he scored a season low 9 points, was a motivating factor for revenge Cotton said.

Marcus Johnson had a career-high 16 rebounds for CSULB. "We were out-rebounded by UC Irvine (the 49ers previous game) so we wanted to come out and prove a point," Johnson said.

After their 72-61 loss to the 49ers, Cal State Fullerton has lost seven of their last eight games.

Cal State Fullerton forward De Vaughn Wright had a solid performance shooting 6 of 8 from the floor. Most of his field goals were dunks. The 49ers' homecoming game and final home game of the season is March 1 against the University of Pacific.

The 49ers will then travel to Reno for the Big West Conference Tournament. The winner of the tournament will get an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.