The Long Beach State men’s basketball team survived a late surge to get their fifth consecutive win in front of 2,633 fans Wednesday night at the Walter Pyramid.
Leading by three points, LBSU junior guard Casper Ware received a technical foul for throwing an elbow after being fouled with just 4.1 seconds left to play. Both Ware and UC Davis guard Joe Harden were sent to the free-throw line.
Ware made both of his while Harden only made one, which sealed LBSU’s 60-56 victory.
The 49ers’ (10-8, 5-0 Big West) were up by as much as 15 points with 7:59 to play when UC Davis (6-11, 1-4 Big West) went on a 20-7 run to put themselves within two points with just 25 seconds to left in the game.
LBSU head coach Dan Monson noticed the maturity of his team in spite of it all.
“I think the thing that this team realizes this year that they didn’t grasp last year is that every league game is a war,” he said.
Junior forward Eugene Phelps led the way for The Beach with 15 points on 5-of-8 shooting and 15 rebounds.
“I thought [Eugene Phelps] had a great attitude,” Monson said. “We needed him because we had some guys, like Casper and T.J. that were more out of sync than they have been so far in conference play.”
Phelps said he used the early adversity from Saturday’s game against UC Irvine to help his play tonight.
“Last game I had my head down and all the coaches talked to me and told me to play through it, so I tried to do that today,” he said.
Ware, who was named one of 20 finalists for the Bob Cousy Award earlier in the day, finished with 12 points, two assists, and two steals putting him sixth on the all-time Long Beach steals list behind Juaquin Hawkins. Ware also had seven of the team’s 21 turnovers.
Junior Larry Anderson, whose play has earned him two consecutive Big West Player of the Week honors, put up 12 points, three steals and five turnovers. Senior guard Greg Plater contributed 11 points to the 49er offense.
Both teams combined for 22 turnovers and a meager 36.5 field goal percentage in the first half. Harden scored with three seconds left to go into halftime tied at 24.
In the second half, Long Beach seemed to have fixed its problems and began to pull away from Davis. In a span of six minutes, they went on a 17-2 run to give them a comfortable 50-35 lead.
The lead was cut down to two with just seconds left to play, but Monson was still proud of how his team finished the game.
“Our guys did a good job of not panicking,” he said. “Everyone kept their composure.”
Harden paced UC Davis with 20 points and five rebounds. Ryan Sypkens added 16 points and five rebounds to his team’s efforts.
Phelps also believes that games like these can help to improve the team.
“We just got to adjust,” Phelps said. “So that’s what we’re going to work on in practice tomorrow and Friday, so we’re ready to play anybody.”
LBSU returns to action Saturday night against Pacific at the Walter Pyramid. Tip off is scheduled for 8 p.m.
Though it wasn’t a pretty victory, Monson felt good about his team’s performance thus far in Big West play.
“There was a lot of things we could do better, but I’m happy to be 5-0,” he said.
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