It wasn’t pretty at times, but the new-look Long Beach State men’s basketball team was able to grind out a season-opening win in front of 5,501 49er faithful at the Walter Pyramid on Saturday.
The Beach (1-0) celebrated homecoming by defeating North Alabama, 75-65 behind a balanced scoring attack. The crowd was the second-largest in Pyramid history, just behind last season’s contest against Big West Conference rival Cal State Fullerton (5,649).
The two teams combined for 49 turnovers (26 by LBSU) and were clearly trying to simply get a feel for one another throughout the game. Another area of concern for the Beach was an abysmal 15 out of 26 (57.7 percent) shooting performance from the free-throw line.
James Ennis paced the Beach with 19 points to go along with six rebounds, two steals and an assist. The senior guard matched his career-high in scoring and punctuated the effort with a breakaway, one-handed slam dunk which sent the crowd into a frenzy.
Ennis said the win was important for a team that is trying to come together as a group and become more comfortable with one another.
“Staying together, not going off and everyone doing their own thing was good today,” he said. “Being vocal felt good.”
The ‘Niners took a 13-point lead into halftime after sophomore Kris Gulley knocked-down a straightaway three-pointer with less than two seconds remaining.
Gulley finished the afternoon shooting a perfect 4-for-4 from the field, including all three of his attempts from long range. He and freshman Deng Deng scored 11 apiece for the 49ers.
The Lions responded after the break with a quick 11-0 run which brought the score to within two at 44-42. The spurt was sparked by three long-range buckets in a five-possession stretch. The hot streak wouldn’t last long however, as the Lions shot just 27.6 percent (8 of 29) from distance on the afternoon.
Sixth-year LBSU head coach Dan Monson said the most disappointing area of the team’s performance was its inability to hold leads and put the Lions away.
“We needed to be more active defensively and less active offensively,” he said. “We’ve got to slow everybody down and get their confidence up. It’s going to be difficult because we’ve got tough sledding coming up.”
During the second half, LBSU’s Branford Jones took a spill after colliding with a defender near mid-court and was unable to return to the game due to an apparent ankle injury.
“It looks pretty bad,” Monson said. “In 15 minutes you can see he’s going to be a pretty good player and a very capable backup for Mike (Caffey). It’s going to be a big blow if it’s as bad as we fear but I can’t jump to any conclusions before they x-ray him.”
Up to that point, the freshman had tallied eight points, three assists, three rebounds and two steals.
Junior Rashaun Claiborne led the Lions with 17 points and four rebounds.
LBSU returns to action Tuesday night when it travels to take on USC at 6:30 p.m. at the Galen Center.