FULLERTON – Late Wednesday night, the “this is our house” chant was heard coming from the rafters in Titan Gym, and it wasn’t the home fans cheering.
Long Beach State men’s basketball team went on the road to beat Cal State Fullerton 94-84 on Valentine’s Day, which extended the 49ers lead atop the Big West Conference.
“I thought our guys came out and played very well in those first 10 minutes,” said LBSU head coach Larry Reynolds. “We built up that lead, which I think gave us confidence on the road and hung on for the win.”
The loss for Fullerton (18-6, 8-4) was its first at home this season, and LBSU (18-6, 9-2) now has a game-and-a-half lead over the second place Titans (18-6, 8-4) in the Big West standings.
Five 49ers scored in double figures, with Kejuan Johnson leading the team with 19 points. Aaron Nixon had 18, Sterling Byrd 17, and forwards Dominique Ricks and Mark Dawson both had 10 points.
“We knew they were undefeated at home and that even though [Fullerton] was down early, we still had to keep playing if we were going to win the game,” Johnson said.
LBSU, which never trailed in the game, took advantage of Fullerton turnovers early on, jumping out to a 21-7 lead at the 11:52.
Fullerton chipped away at the deficit, and when Bobby Brown hit a 3-pointer with 54 seconds left in the opening half, the 49er lead was down to 39-37.
Mark Dawson put the 49ers up 41-37 going into the break, tipping in a Nixon miss as time expired.
In the second half, the 49ers held Fullerton without a field goal for six minutes in the middle of the second half to build up a 20-point win, and the Titans would get no closer than eight for the rest of the game.
Bobby Brown had a game-high 36 points for Fullerton in the losing effort, going 13-for-24 from the field and 6-for-13 on 3-pointers.
“Bobby had a tremendous game,” Reynolds said. “We did a pretty good job on him, forcing him to take shots he didn’t want, but saying that, he did have 36 points.”
For LBSU, the win is its fifth straight and third straight away from The Walter Pyramid.
“We had some trouble on the road earlier in the year,” Reynolds said, “But we have a senior-laden team, so I think we could be an effective team on the road.”
The 49ers will now take a short break from the conference season and will face Hawaii on Saturday at 7 p.m. at The Walter Pyramid.
“We got to stay focused for Hawaii,” Johnson said. “I don’t know much about them, but we will watch [the] tape tomorrow, and we will be ready for Saturday.”