Two days after winning the Big West Conference regular-season title, the Long Beach State men’s basketball team dealt a blow to last season’s conference champions on Saturday night.
The 49ers started a 20-0 run with under seven minutes left to pull away for a 71-53 win over UC Santa Barbara in front of a national television audience and 4,049 fans at the Walter Pyramid.
“We defended and rebounded,” LBSU head coach Dan Monson said, “and we were able to get some offense out of that.
“These guys are becoming a team.”
LBSU (19-10, 13-2 Big West), which won its eighth straight contest, also finished a perfect 8-0 at home in Big West play.
Trailing 51-47, Gauchos forward Jaime Serna blocked Casper Ware to ignite a fastbreak layup by Justin Joyner with 6:54 to play.
Monson said he nearly called a timeout as the Gauchos closed the gap, but ultimately decided to let his team play its way out of adversity.
“They’re playing with confidence,” Monson added.
UCSB (14-13, 7-8 Big West), which trailed by 11 after the first two minutes of the second half, would not score again until two meaningless layups from Troy Leaf inside the final minute.
The 49ers highlighted the spurt with a pair of spectacular sequences with UCSB reeling, and reigning conference player of the year Orlando Johnson already fouled out.
Larry Anderson, a 6-5 guard, blocked 7-3 Gauchos center Greg Somogyi on one end, then delivered an acrobatic layup with his left hand and drew the foul on Somogyi on the other to get the crowd in a frenzy. The basket extended the LBSU lead to 64-49 with just under four minutes remaining.
Ware then joined the fray with 2:02 left to play. The junior drained a long, contested 3-pointer about 10 feet behind the line to put the ‘Niners ahead by 20 points.
Ware, who then left the floor to a standing ovation immediately afterward, finished with a game-high 26 points.
“I didn’t even realize that we started to [extend the lead] by that much,” Ware said.
Forward T.J. Robinson added a double-double with 19 points and 19 rebounds. The junior shot 8 of 13, and helped The Beach out-rebounded UCSB decisively, 49-29.
“We always have a chip on our shoulder coming into this game against Santa Barbara because they won the league last year,” Robinson said.
Johnson paced the Gauchos with 18 points, but finished just 7-of-18 from the floor. Now, the best that fifth-place UCSB can finish in the conference standings is 8-8 — or fall as low as the seventh seed in the eight-team Big West Tournament in March.
But Monson was quick to point out that his team finished .500 in conference play last season and reached the tournament finals.
In a sloppy first half from both teams, UCSB’s James Nunnally nailed a 3 inside the final minute to snap an 8-2 LBSU run. The 49ers took a 32-29 lead into the locker room.
The 49ers settled for contested, outside jump shots for much of the half. And when they weren’t doing that, the ‘Niners committed 11 of their 16 turnovers and showcased questionable clock management.
“It took us a while to settle down offensively and attack the zone (defense),” Monson said. “We made some really poor decisions both off the [dribble] and the pass in the first half.”
LBSU shot just 34.5 percent (10 of 29) in the first 20 minutes, but UCSB did not fare much better at 35.3 percent (12 of 34). The Gauchos’ issues were more around the basket coupled with decent open looks.
Ware solely kept the 49ers ahead, picking up from where he left off in Thursday’s championship-clinching win over Cal Poly. The point guard made three 3-pointers en route to 18 first-half points.
“That Thursday night game took over into this night,” Ware said of the early emotions and erratic play.
The Beach will close out the regular season on the road Wednesday at UC Riverside. Tipoff is slated for 8 p.m.
Despite having the No. 1 seed in the tournament wrapped up, Monson said he will not change his approach — or player rotation — against the Highlanders.
“We’re asking these kids to win,” he said. “We don’t want to go into that tournament with any lack of confidence or any lack of sharpness. So we’re gonna go to Riverside and play like we do every game.
“If [Ware] needs to play 40 minutes to do that, he’ll rest a month from now.”
Monson added that the team will not practice Tuesday.
Game notes
After the game, seniors Greg Plater, Tristan Wilson and Brandon Nevens were honored after playing their last home game. The ceremony featured a video package of each player, and all three were given the public address announcer microphone to address their teammates, coaches, families and the fans.
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