For the second time in four days, the Long Beach State men’s basketball team came from behind to win by two points on its home court.
The ‘Niners (13-8, 9-1 Big West Conference) defeated Cal Poly 50-48 on Saturday night to earn a split of the season series with the Mustangs.
The victory brings LBSU’s winning streak to eight games, and it has now won 23 in a row at home against Big West foes.
Cal Poly (9-11, 5-5 Big West), which handed The Beach its only conference loss so far this season (79-73 in January), took a 30-25 lead into halftime, but the 49ers responded with a stringent defensive effort in the second half, holding the Mustangs to just 18 points after the break.
James Ennis led the 49ers once again, scoring 18 of his game-high 23 points in the second half.
The senior guard shot 7-of-10 from field and hit five 3-pointers on eight attempts while extending his streak of double-digit scoring to 26 games.
“Staying together was the main thing,” Ennis said of the win. “[Cal Poly] is a team who toughens up on the defensive end.”
Ennis was also perfect from the free-throw line on four attempts. He drained a pair of clutch free throws with 5.9 seconds remaining to put the Beach up by four and seal the contest.
Possibly the biggest play of the evening came with 1:20 to play when sophomore guard Mike Caffey took to the dribble, then stepped back and connected on a jumper from about 18 feet out to break a 46-46 tie.
“I saw the court was spread and the shot clock was winding down, so I just tried to make a play,” Caffey said. “They played good defense on me, but I got it off.”
LBSU head coach Dan Monson said he was happy with the continued defensive effort and the team’s ability to hold on for the win.
“This was a great win for us,” he said. “They’re a very good defensive team, and every point is going to be contested. To our guys’ credit on the other side, we made most of their points contested also. If you look back at the history of playing them, for us it’s always been tough. We hadn’t kept a team under 60 points all year and now we’ve done it three times in a row with three wins at home, so it’s getting better defensively.”
Monson added that it is important for the team to keep winning while it improves and the players continue to become more comfortable with one another.
“Rebounding was super disappointing in the first half, but we only gave up two offensive rebounds in the second half, so that was encouraging,” he said. “To be able to improve and win when you know you can play better than that is encouraging.”
Cal Poly was paced by Kyle Odister, who scored 11 points and was the only Mustang to reach double figures. The junior guard shot 5-of-7 from the field.
LBSU returns to the court Saturday when it travels to the Matadome for a matchup with Cal State Northridge at 7 p.m.
The ‘Niners defeated the Matadors 78-69 at home earlier this season.