By snoadmin
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Whenever the team you are playing against ties its career record for points in a game, it’s usually not a good sign.
Long Beach State’s season came to an end Friday afternoon as it watched Tennessee make shot after shot at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. The onslaught was capped off when sophomore Tanner Wild banked home a 3-pointer with four seconds left to put an exclamation point on the Volunteers’ 121-86 win over the 49ers in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
“I think we played an opponent that was better than we were and they showed it tonight,” said LBSU head coach Larry Reynolds. “Obviously, we played kind of the same style and they had a few more weapons going tonight than we did.”
The Volunteers made their first three shots, all of which were 3-pointers, and by the 13:02 mark of the first half, Tennessee led 26-10.
LBSU chipped away at the Tennessee advantage, and when Kejuan Johnson hit a 3-pointer with 4:38 left in the first half, the Volunteers’ lead was only six, at 41-35.
That was as close as the 49ers would get.
Tennessee closed out the first half on a 16-10 run to push the lead to 12 and then scored 14 of the first 16 points to take a 24-point lead.
“The start of the second half was the key of the game,” said Tennessee forward Dane Bradshaw. “We were able to stop them and get easy baskets in transition.”
Tennessee continued to make its shots to close the game and finshed shooting 59 percent from the field and 52 percent (14-27) on 3-pointers.
When asked what Tennessee was doing that gave the 49ers so much trouble defensively, Kevin Houston said, “Hitting jump shots. At one point, they were 75 percent from the field. They did a great job of spreading the floor and hitting jump shots.”
Three Tennessee players scored over 20 points, with sharpshooter Chris Lofton scoring 25, JaJuan Smith having 24, and Romar Smith contributing 22.
The Volunteers scored 56 points in the paint, most of which were on layups, and 15 points from their fast break.
“We definitley got our fast break back,” Lofton said. “[Coach Bruce Pearl] has been preaching to us to put the fast back in the fast break and we did that today.”
While the Volunteers tied a 41-year-old record for most points scored, LBSU was two points away from tying its school record for most points allowed, which was against Cal State Los Angeles in 1964.
Offensively, Kejuan Johnson led LBSU in points with 24 and Ohio-native Aaron Nixon scored 23 points in the loss.
For Johnson and Nixon, along with seven other LBSU seniors, the game marked the end to their collegiate careers.
“This being your last game, it hurts,” Johnson said. “You know you can’t come back, but all we can do is wish our freshmen and sophomores the best of luck. And good luck to Tennessee.”
The game could also be the last for Reynolds on the LBSU sidelines. His contract will run out at the end of the year, and after the game, Athletic Director Vic Cegles said, “We will take the rest of the weekend off and talk about the situation Monday.”
The 49ers end the season with 24 wins, which is in a tie for the third most in school history. Friday’s game was the first NCAA Tournament game for LBSU since 1995.
