The Long Beach men’s basketball team extended its season-high winning streak to six after defeating UC Riverside 68-63 Thursday night in the Walter Pyramid.
The 49ers (13-11, 7-1) had another strong defensive performance at home, holding the Highlanders to 42 percent shooting and just eight free throw attempts for the game. Head coach Dan Monson said the goal was to stay in front and force UCR to shoot over their defense
“I think we walled up pretty good,” Monson said. “[We] played with our feet and not our hands. It was a physical game both ways. They kept us off the [free throw] line by and large until they started fouling at the end. That was their best defense, the way we shot free throws.”
As has been a common theme the last several games, the 49ers went to senior forward David Samuels often early in the first half. Samuels was four of nine with eight points and four rebounds in the first half and finished with another double-double (18 points, 13 rebounds).
“They didn’t have much experience down low,” Samuels said. “So I just took advantage of that. We usually win when I have a double-double, so that’s the goal.”
Senior point guard bounced back from an uncharacteristically poor game last Saturday against Hawaii. Caffey’s 18 points helped him move into 6th place on the LBSU’s all-time scoring list.
“I made shots today [today],” Caffey said. “Last game I was more locked in defensively. This game I got some shots up and made a few.”
UCR made a late rally in the last few minutes of the game. LBSU led by 12 points with just over a minute left in the game. Riverside was able to cut the lead down to as low as five, but eventually ran out of time.
“They just don’t go away,” Monson said. “We had 10 double digit leads three or four times and they just [kept coming back]. That’s just the character and makeup of the program. I kept telling our guys ‘they’re not going to go away, we’re going to have to put them away,’ and we just weren’t able to do it.”
The 49ers did themselves no favors by letting the Highlanders hang around with their poor free throw shooting. LBSU shot just 54 percent from the line including 11 of 18 in the second half. Monson said the team improved a lot in the preseason, but the free throw shooting has been consistently poor.
“We had those nine-point leads against San Diego State and Washington,” Monson said. “We have to able to put people away. To do that we have to take care of the ball and we have to make free throws, and we didn’t do either one of those very well today.”
Monson said he didn’t think the team passed and cut to the rim very well. He said Riverside was tougher when they had the ball.
“We got up 10 in the first half,” Monson said. “Then turned it over three straight times on pass and catches. All of sudden it’s a tie game.”
The 49ers will continue their home stand Saturday at 4 p.m. when they take on UC Irvine for the second time this season.
