Seventeen wins, zero losses.
By defeating UC Davis 71-65 Wednesday, senior guards James Ennis and Peter Pappageorge can now say they finished their Long Beach State basketball careers without a single home loss to a conference opponent.
After trailing 33-24 at the half, The Beach (17-9, 13-2 Big West Conference) outscored the Aggies (11-14, 7-7 Big West) by 15 following the break to capture a come-from-behind victory.
Keala King led the charge, scoring nine points in the first half and 13 in the second en route to a season-high 22. The junior guard also tallied four rebounds, two assists and two steals.
“We just wanted to go out as a team and play hard,” King said. “We were scoring and playing as a team so that was able to open me up to hit a couple of shots and open up the zone.”
Junior forward Tony Freeland added 18 points, including 16 in the second half, while grabbing six boards. His frontcourt mate Dan Jennings contributed a career-high 11 rebounds.
“At halftime coach told us that is was James’ and Pappageorge’s last regular season home game,” Freeland said. “So I kind of thrived on that, I didn’t want to let them down.”
Ennis finished the night with 15 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the field, and Pappageorge added six on a pair of 3-pointers.
Ennis has now scored in double figures 31 games in a row.
LBSU head coach Dan Monson credited his team for being able to find a way to win despite a slow start and a 11-point second half deficit.
“This time of year every win is a tough win,” he said. “I’m just happy to get out of it. We didn’t have a lot of life early. We didn’t have a lot of energy and [Davis] is a team not a team not to have that, not to be able to locate people. As the mark of a good team, in the second half, they dictated that end of the floor. To hold them without a three in the second half after how they played in the first is a great accomplishment.”
The Aggies were anchored by sophomore guard Corey Hawkins who posted a team-high 21 points, including four 3-pointers on eight attempts, to go with six boards.
Hawkins leads the Big West in scoring, averaging 19.9 points per night.
LBSU returns to the court Friday night at 6 when its hosts Stephen F. Austin (22-3) in the Ramada Worldwide Bracketbuster. The game will be televised on ESPNU.