The Long Beach State men’s basketball team is starting to come together like a team of Big West Conference championship destiny.
While the flu-ridden Casper Ware certainly deserves plenty of headlines for his best Michael Jordan impersonation last Saturday, it is one of his back-ups that deserves some much-needed praise.
With Ware in foul trouble, head coach Dan Monson summoned Corey Jackson to the rescue. The 6-foot guard immediately drained three 3-pointers, finished with nine points in five minutes, and suddenly there seems to be a bit more depth on the team compared to a month ago.
And on top of it all, a little more outside shooting.
LBSU (15-10, 10-2 Big West) is two games ahead of second-place Cal Poly with four conference games left. The “magic number” — or combination of 49ers wins and Mustangs losses — to clinch the Big West crown outright is 3.
In other words, the 49ers are in prime position to qualify for the postseason for the first time since 2007. No, it does not mean that LBSU will automatically play in the NCAA Tournament, but a regular-season crown guarantees the team a spot in the National Invitation Tournament if it suffers an early exit in the Big West Tournament at the Honda Center.
But if you ask the ‘Niners, they are not settling for anything but March Madness’ field of 68.
More new faces
OK, so Jackson isn’t entirely “new” to the 49ers, but he may as well have been with the way he was buried on Monson’s bench.
But one player as fresh as a newborn is true freshman starting pitcher Erin Jones-Wesley, who was named Big West Pitcher of the Week on Monday. The 5-8 right-hander dazzled in her collegiate softball debut on opening weekend, defeating Boise State twice — and with identical complete-game shutouts, coincidentally — on a pair of eight-strikeout performances.
She allowed just eight combined hits in the starts, and head coach Kim Sowder insisted that Jones-Wesley will be part of a three-pitcher rotation — along with the equally impressive Taylor Petty — when senior Brooke Turner returns to the circle.
A 4-0 start is one way to scoff at a fourth-place prediction in the eight-team Big West coaches’ poll.
Around the Big West
Ware’s effort, coupled with his 7-of-7 shooting display in a rout over UC Davis, earned him conference player of the week on Monday. On the women’s side, Cal State Northridge’s Jasmine Erving nabbed the honor.
With a first-place 49ers team dominating the league, Ware has to be the clear favorite for Big West Player of the Year. The junior is averaging 16.4 points per game — and is second in the conference at 18.3 ppg in Big West play — to go with 5.3 assists and 1.8 steals.
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