James Ennis has made a habit of feasting on one of his teams’ most bitter rivals.
Blackout Night in the Walter Pyramid was no different.
The Long Beach State men’s basketball team (15-9, 11-2 Big West Conference) held the nation’s fourth most potent offensive attack nearly 17 points under its scoring average (81.8) and defeated Cal State Fullerton (12-12, 5-7), 85-65, Wednesday night for its 24th straight victory at home over Big West foes.
Ennis wasted little time extending his streak of double-digit scoring to 29 games.
The senior guard scored 11 points over the first 10 minutes of play and finished the night with a double-double on 26 points and 15 rebounds to go with three steals.
He shot 10-of-16 from the field, and The Beach outshot Fullerton 51.5 percent to 35.3 on the night.
“Off of our defense and our stops we started getting the break open more,” Ennis said. “We had each others’ back, and we came out as a team.”
Ennis has now scored 20 or more points eight times this season.
The Beach took a 42-36 advantage into the half, but Fullerton responded with a quick 10-4 run to start the second frame to tie the contest at 46.
LBSU would never fall behind, however, as it answered with a 25-3 outburst over the following eight minutes to regain complete control.
Ennis was one of five ‘Niners in double figures, as the balanced scoring effort extended to Tony Freeland (13), Dan Jennings (12), Peter Pappageorge (12) and Keala King (10).
Freeland also contributed a double-double for The Beach with 13 points and 12 boards to go along with four assists, two steals and a block.
“We were due to have a real good game overall,” Freeland said. “It was time. Coach really stressed that we needed to have a good start against these guys, and we did that today.”
LBSU head coach Dan Monson said he saw signs of the team playing the way he has pictured since the offseason.
“There was a 10-minute stretch there in the second half that was the Long Beach State 49er basketball team that I think I envisioned and a lot of people envisioned,” he said. “We probably played our best basketball of the year as far as offense and defensive rebounding and putting everything together. The big thing now is going to be consistency. You can’t go to the NCAA tournament on 10 minutes.”
The win is number 100 for Monson at LBSU. The sixth-year coach is now 100-86 in his tenure at The Beach and is the third-winningest coach in school history.
“I honestly did not know that, but James [Ennis] said something about it this morning at shoot-around,” Monson said. “It’s great because I’ve been able to be here six years. It means something later. Today, I would trade all hundred for this win.”
Kwame Vaughn and Sammy Yeager paced the Titans with 18 points apiece.
LBSU returns to the court Saturday afternoon when it hosts UC Riverside (5-18, 2-9) at 4:05 p.m.