Homecoming wasn’t so sweet for Long Beach State on Saturday night despite a record crowd of 5,143 fans at the Walter Pyramid.
The 49ers kept it close at half, but couldn’t hang on to record the upset as No. 25 San Diego State exited the Pyramid with an 81-65 victory in both teams’ season opener.
“We battled and played hard for 35 minutes,” LBSU head coach Dan Monson said. “I was really pleased with the team until the last five minutes. Our shots and our toughness, mentally, when we got tired was unacceptable over the last five or six minutes.”
After a strong opening half, the 49ers ran out of gas toward the end of the game.
LBSU (0-1) took the lead with just under 10 minutes to play thanks to a jumper from Tristan Wilson, but the Aztecs fired back almost instantly. An 11-0 run consisting of three straight 3-pointers from reserve James Rahon proved to be costly for the ‘Niners and put the game out of reach.
The Aztecs (1-0) were led by forward Kawhi Leonard, who finished the contest with 21 points and 12 rebounds — game highs for both categories. 49ers forward T.J. Robinson picked up right where he left off last season, putting up 19 points while grabbing nine rebounds.
The Beach (0-1) addressed a major area of concern in the first half as Greg Plater, Larry Anderson and Robinson all connected on their 3-point attempts to give the team an early 11-7 lead. But the shots stopped falling shortly after and The Beach struggled throughout the rest of the game, finishing a combined 5 for 23 from distance.
SDSU fought back and took control of the game for the majority of the first half thanks in large part to Leonard, who tallied 13 points before the break.
The Aztecs also got a spark from guard D.J. Gay, who was a perfect 3-for-3 from 3-point range. Gay finished the game with 20 points, three rebounds and three assists.
The 49ers came back to tie it up at 42 in the final seconds of the first half thanks to a fast-break opportunity started by Anderson. With the clock ticking away, Anderson stole the ball and tipped it up court to Casper Ware, who found Robinson in mid-air for the game-tying alley-oop.
“It was momentum going into halftime,” Ware said. “It’s a good way to end the half.”
The difference in the game was the contributions from the bench. LBSU received solid play from newcomers Edis Dervisevic and Wilson, who finished the game with six points and four rebounds in 16 minutes. But it was nothing like the spark the Aztecs got from Rahon, who put the game out of reach with his shooting and scored 11 of his 14 points in the second half.
“A game at that level is really hard for new guys to step into,” Monson said. “I just chose to ride them out and see if they could hang in there. They ran out of gas against a very good team.
“They wore us down and that’s why they are as highly touted as they are. They deserve it.”
Starting point guard Ware, a preseason All-Big West Conference selection, ignited the offense with seven straight points in the final minutes of the first half but became bothered by leg cramps and never got back into the flow of the game after halftime. Ware finished with 15 points, five rebounds, three steals and two assists.
“It was hard for me to cut the way I wanted to,” Ware said. “I just really wanted to go out there and distribute to my teammates.”
The Beach will face San Francisco State at 7:05 p.m. on Monday at the Walter Pyramid.
Game notes
The previous Walter Pyramid attendance record was 5,118 fans for a Misty May-led LBSU women’s volleyball team on Nov. 7, 1998. The 49ers used a surprise entrance as they made their way from the concourse level at the top of the Pyramid through The Maniacs cheering section before heading to the floor.
The contest marked the 49ers’ 19th consecutive loss to a ranked opponent, with their last win coming against No. 25 New Mexico State in 1994. The Beach has also never defeated a ranked team at home in five tries.
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