‘Niners win third straight, beat New Mexico State

After scoring 24 points in a double overtime win at Idaho State, Donovan Morris poured in 30 to give Long Beach State an 82-77 win over the New Mexico State Aggies Sunday night at The Walter Pyramid.

Point guard Casper Ware played well again, scoring 15 points, dishing out four assists and the 5-foot-7-inch freshman also had a team-high six rebounds.

Stephan Gilling knocked down three 3-pointers and finished with nine, as did Larry Anderson — including two huge dunks that energized both the 49ers and the Walter Pyramid crowd. Senior forward Cornel Williams chipped in eight.

But the story again for the 49ers (3-2) was the play of Morris. Including the 14 points he scored in double overtime to push Long Beach State past Idaho State, the senior guard has scored 44 points in the last 45 minutes of LBSU basketball.

“We’ve been in desperation mode towards the end,” Morris said. “Coach wants me to be more aggressive in there. He has started calling more plays to get me open and find the right spots for me.”

While Morris is still the first scoring threat, the ‘Niner attack continues to be much more balanced, especially with the contributions from the freshmen like Ware, Anderson and T.J. Robinson.

“When you have Donovan in a flow, and then those freshmen can make plays, it’s nice not to have to call everything from the bench and try to manufacture plays,” head coach Dan Monson said.

NMSU (2-2) had four players score in double figures including forward Wendell McKines, who totaled 16 points and 10 rebounds but did not score in the second half — missing all four of the shots he took.

Jahmar Young added 17, while Robert Lumpkins and Troy Gillenwater each tallied 11 points for the visiting Aggies.

The ‘Niners trailed 75-71 inside of the last two minutes, but a Morris three brought them within one. After a steal, Ware knocked down two free throws to give LBSU the lead with 1:22 to play.

Another steal and an Anderson dunk gave Long Beach a three-point lead with 1:06 remaining.

Young missed the front-end of a one-and-one and the Aggies were forced to foul. Two Morris free throws gave LBSU an 80-75 lead with 38 seconds left in the game.

Gordo Castillo made two free throws to cut the NMSU deficit to three and the Aggies fouled Morris again.

Morris had made 29-for-32 on the season, and all eight of his attempts in the game, but missed both with 22 seconds to play and New Mexico got the ball back with a chance to tie.

After a loose ball went out of bounds to the Aggies, they had just under 12 seconds left to tie the game. A long Lumpkins 3-point attempt fell short, Ware grabbed the rebound and calmly sank two free throws to ice the game.

Long Beach scored 47 points in an up-and-down second half and went 14-for-23 from the field (61 percent).

After struggling from the line in its first four games, making just 50-for-83 (60 percent), Long Beach shot 77 percent from the charity stripe tonight, making 20-for-26.

“It’s certainly been a priority in practice,” Monson said of his team’s free-throw shooting. “We got back from Thanksgiving and they did a lot of running because we did a lot of missing.”

After being on the bench for most of the second half against Weber State, Ware has responded with two excellent games and has been hard at work on his whole game and has a renewed sense of confidence.

“We run if we miss,” Ware said, echoing coach Monson’s free-throw sentiments. “Coach is always on us if we miss, so I thought about running — and we don’t like running — so I knocked them down.”

For the first time this season LBSU won the battle on the glass, out-rebounding NMSU, 31-28.

Both teams shot well from beyond the arc. NMSU was 11-of-22 and LBSU made 10-of-22 from 3-point range.

LBSU used a 13-5 run to start the second half and took a 48-41 lead, spurred by 3-point buckets from Morris, Gilling and Williams.

A Gillenwater 3-pointer gave NMSU the lead again, 55-54, with 11:54 left.

New Mexico State led 36-35 at the half.

Morris scored 14 points for LBSU in the first 20 minutes while McKines had 16 points on 8-for-10 shooting and seven rebounds for the Aggies.

Last season, NMSU won at home handily, 80-48, over the 49ers.

LBSU hosts Pepperdine at the Walter Pyramid on Wednesday night. Tip-off is at 7:05 p.m.