By snoadmin
Long Beach State held on for an exciting win against preseason conference favorite CS Northridge, 74-68, Saturday evening at the Walter Pyramid.
The win runs the 49ers’ record to 10-7 and 5-0 in the Big West Conference. It’s the first time The Beach has started conference play with five straight wins since the 1999-2000 campaign.
Donovan Morris led all scorers with 22 points despite not making a field goal in the second half.
Northridge (6-9, 3-2 Big West) hammered Long Beach on the offensive end, grabbing 20 rebounds, but did not make enough shots to have it stand up. CSUN shot just 35.8 percent from the field and made only 50 percent (12-of-24) of their free throw attempts.
“I am proud of our guys, that was a hard fought game,” LBSU head coach Dan Monson said. “Physically, we got manhandled inside and yet our guys battled through it and were able to come out with a win. You got to give our guys credit, they found a way.”
LBSU made only 2-of-16 from 3-point range but shot 50 percent overall from the field (26-of-52) and made 20 of its 26 free throw attempts — a huge factor in a close game where every point is critical.
Long Beach led by as many as 11 with a 46-35 margin just after halftime, but a 15-5 Northridge run spurred on by forward Kenny Daniels brought them within one with 10:37 to play.
After trading baskets, a Mark Hill 3-pointer with 7:32 remaining gave Northridge its first lead since early in the first half at 56-55.
A quick 6-0 spurt from Long Beach gave them the lead for good.
Andrew Fleming, only in the game because starting center Brian Freeman fouled out, had a huge rebound and put-back with 2:09 to play and a big rebound on the defensive end to help seal the victory.
After Hill hit a 3-pointer with 1:42 to play to cut the LBSU lead to three, T.J. Robinson followed his own miss with the shot clock expiring and gave The Beach a 71-66 lead with just 22 seconds remaining.
With first place in the Big West at stake, the game had the feel and intensity of one that took place much later in the season.
“It was a big game,” Fleming said. “It was a game for first place. They won the league last year so they are trying to come back and defend that and that’s our goal, to win league this year. It was definitely an intense game, especially down the stretch when it got real close.”
The ‘Niners are now 7-1 at the Walter Pyramid this season.
“If we’re going to contend for this league,” Monson said, “it goes through Northridge with the team they have. As I tell our guys, championships are won on the road. If you are going to challenge for a league championship you got to be expected to win at home.”
Once again the freshmen played a huge role in the LBSU victory. Larry Anderson scored 13, Casper Ware added 10 to go with seven assists and Robinson scored eight and pulled down seven rebounds.
There was even two stretches where the four freshmen, including Eugene Phelps, were all on the court at the same time and they definitely noticed.
“It’s a better flow for the freshmen,” Robinson said. “We can sort of have a green light more when we are all in together. It feels good, our chemistry is great out there when we are on the floor together.”
Tremaine Townsend had a monster game on the glass for CSUN. He grabbed 16 rebounds — seven offensive — and scored 12 points. Daniels was the high point man for the Matadors with 15. Willie Galick and Hill, in his first game of eligibility after transferring from Tulsa, both added 11.
Northridge was once again without leading scorer Deon Tresvant, who hasn’t played since being arrested for allegedly stealing $6,600 worth of merchandise from a Porter Ranch Best Buy store just after Christmas with another teammate and the help of Jeff Braswell, Matador head coach Bobby Braswell’s son.
Long Beach led at intermission 40-32 behind 15 points from Morris. Townsend paced Northridge with seven.
The game began at an up-tempo pace but both teams quickly got into foul trouble.
Long Beach shot a scintillating 55.2 percent from the field, making 16-of-29 tries in the first half.
The Matadors made just 12-of-39 field goal attempts but grabbed 11 offensive rebounds compared to just one for the 49ers in the half.
LBSU returns to action next Saturday against UC Riverside (9-7, 2-3 Big West) for a 7:05 p.m. tip-off at the Walter Pyramid.
