SAN DIEGO — After earning one of the biggest wins in school history, the Long Beach State men’s basketball team intended on avoiding a letdown.
Unfortunately for the 49ers, San Diego State University was more than eager to end the their post-Pittsburgh upset party.
The Aztecs rallied from a three-point first-half deficit and held on in overtime to pull out a 77-73 victory over The Beach on Saturday afternoon at Viejas Arena.
The game was not pretty by any means. LBSU committed a whopping 23 of the 39 combined turnovers for the game and 26 of the 47 fouls called. The result, however, was an exciting game that had the feel and intensity of a matchup one would expect to see in March, not mid-November.
49ers head coach Dan Monson said that a lack of cohesiveness led to the struggles on the offensive end.
“We didn’t play well enough together,” he said. “[Against Pitt], we had 24 assists and 10 turnovers, and we had the reverse today — 12 assists on 23 turnovers. We have guys trying to do too much, and trying to go off on their own too much.”
LBSU senior guard Larry Anderson, who tallied a career-high 25 points on 8 of 13 shooting and eight rebounds, said complacency after the win over No. 9 Pitt played a role in the loss.
“I think we just got complacent,” he said. “We got really happy that we beat Pittsburgh, and coach said from the get go that [SDSU] a dangerous team. They’re really athletic, and we didn’t handle that success very well.”
Anderson also said it’s good that they got their first loss out of the way.
“I guess it’s a good thing that we lost early to get our heads right.”
Both teams had rough shooting nights as well. LBSU (2-1) shot just 41.5 percent from the field, while SDSU (5-1) finished at a 41.2 percent clip. The Beach won the rebounding battle, but SDSU grabbed 19 offensive rebounds [11 in the first half] which led to 18 second chance points.
Anderson said the guards didn’t do a good job of helping the forwards on the glass.
“We were all leaking out,” he said. “Everyone wanted to get a dunk, we weren’t helping our bigs’ rebound.”
‘Niners senior guard Casper Ware said LBSU’s offensive struggles, which were highlighted in the second half and overtime when it combined for just 33 points, were a testament to the Aztecs defense.
“They were helping each other out with help-side defense,” said Ware, who had a game-high 26 points on 7 of 15 shooting, including 11 of 12 from the free throw line. “I think they took five charges in the second half, that made us stagnant on offense and we didn’t adjust to it.”
With The Beach trailing by three, Ware’s lone miss from the free throw line with eight seconds left in the game opened the opportunity for sophomore SDSU reserve guard Jamal Franklin to put the game away.
Franklin scored 14 of his team-high 21 points in the after the break, and none bigger than the two free throws he sank with 3.9 seconds left in overtime to all but seal the SDSU win.
Anderson then attempted draw a four-point-play at the end of regulation, but his efforts fell short.
Franklin received some help in overtime from sophomore guard Xavier Thames.
After both ‘Niners senior forwards T.J. Robinson and Edis Dervisevic fouled out early in the overtime period, Thames became unstoppable, scoring eight of his 15 points in the extra five minutes.
SDSU junior James Rahon finished the game with 20 points on 8-for-17 shooting.
He led the way for the Aztecs in the first half, scoring nine points on 4 of 8 from the field. Rahon’s performance was much needed as SDSU’s star junior guard Chase Tapley struggled from the field in opening period, scoring just three points on 1 of 6 shooting.
The Beach never trailed in the first half and took a three point lead into the break, highlighted by 16 points on 5 of 9 shooting from Ware and 11 points on 3-for-4 shooting from Anderson.
The ‘Niners will be back in action Tuesday night against Boise State University at the Walter Pyramid at 7:05 pm.
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