By Long Beach State men’s basketball team continued its home dominance with a 69-53 win over UC Santa Barbara on Saturday in front of a sellout crowd in the Walter Pyramid.
“In a lot of ways, we played as good as we have all year,” head coach Dan Monson said. “The key is to build on that and to play better next Saturday. I challenged them a lot about rebounding. I really thought that emphasis was good.”
The 49ers (9-11, 3-1) played a near perfect all-around game against UCSB (8-9, 1-2), starting with one of their best first halves of the season. The Beach led 35-21 at the half; seniors Mike Caffey, David Samuels and Tyler Lamb were the catalysts behind the lead.
Two days after his game-winner against Cal Poly, Caffey had 13 of his game-leading 22 points in the first half, all coming via a variety of creative shots. Whether it was a fade away baseline jumper or straight away triple, Caffey was able to get whatever he wanted through most of the game.
The 49ers had one of their best defensive performances, holding Santa Barbara to just 15 percent shooting from the field in the first half and 25 percent for the game.
“Coach said that every Thursday, our next game Saturday we haven’t won two games in a row,” senior forward David Samuels said. “So that kind of motivated us. He said we need to really focus on winning two games in a row, especially Thursday at home and Saturday at home. WE just focused on finishing the game.”
Samuels and senior guard Tyler Lamb played major roles in the win, both on offense and defense. Samuels had another double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Lamb didn’t shoot well, going just three of 10, but he was active defensively and knocked down two triples in the second half.
“I’m really proud of Tyler Lamb,” Monson said. “He struggled offensively, but what great players do is they find different ways to help the team. He had a really good weekend defensively and rebounding the ball. He got a little flow finally.”
One of the main points of emphasis from Monson was containing Santa Barbara’s senior forward Alan Williams, the reigning Big West Conference Player of the Year. Williams struggled in the first half, scoring just four points while going 0 of eight from the field.
“We tried to throw a lot defenders at him,” Samuels said. “He struggles with length, so a lot of walling up, hands straight up, showing the ref that we’re just playing clean defense on him. Just outwork him.”
Williams finished with 17 points, going five of 14 from the field and grabbing nine rebounds. Monson said he was satisfied with how his players guarded him.
“The biggest thing with Al is he’s got such good timing,” Monson said. “on offensive rebounds. We had three guys share in it. At halftime, Dave [Samuels] had two fouls guarding him, Eric [McKnight] had two fouls guarding him. We were the aggressor. Today I thought we did a good job of dictating the shots at both ends of the court.”
The 49ers will have a week between games when they travel to Cal State Northridge to play the Matadors next Saturday at 7 p.m.
