8:00pm | Editor’s Note: Dan Barber’s column, Dust Plus, is usually always featured in our sports section. However, the sheer achievement of Long Beach State’s basketball team making it to the NCAA championship serves as news for the whole community, both sports lovers and non-sports lovers alike. It is an incredible accomplishment and the Long Beach Post proudly pats CSULB on the back: Good game, boys.
Larry Anderson of the Long Beach State 49ers.
For a sunny Thursday there certainly was a lot of electricity in the air. The source likely was a black and gold (not yellow please) storm condition up north, sort of in the Portland area. The NCAA weather service reported worker outages all across the town, guys in ties crowding sports bars, students playing hooky, and for a magic moment in the second half, the Oregon contingent was dreaming of storming the court. The national media continued their love-in with the 25-8 Long Beachers, everybody from your corner weekly to the NY Times. Alas, the big and burly University of New Mexico flipped the switch, won the game 75-68 and messed up a lot of brackets.
It was close–turnovers about even, rebounds actually favoring the Beach, but free throws, well the Lobos hit 18-24 and LBSU just 8 of 14. And depth, the bench points went to UNM 26-15. Larry Anderson labored for 17 minutes and wrapped up his distinguished career along side his pals, Casper Ware (17 points and 6 NBA quality assists) TJ Robinson another double double (12 points and 14 rebounds), Eugene Phelps (6 points). The future was on display in the nice work of junior James Ennis (13 points) and Mike Caffey (11 points) who will take on the pressure of keeping the Monson bunch somewhere around the top of the Big West next season.
Warm and fuzzy feelings aside, the cold hard facts of the game were these. Once again the Beach had four folks in double figures, but finish their season 25-9 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in Portland’s Rose Garden on Thursday. The bright spot was a 61-59 lead with 4:57 to play on dunk by Ennis, but New Mexico (28-6) answered with a 7-0 run to take a five-point lead and then the Lobos, like their namesakes, just chewed the working legs off the rest of the Cinderella Niners.
The skipper was poised and philosophical in the post-game press conference. “I thought it was a hard played, good college basketball game,” Long Beach State coach Dan Monson said. “They made more plays, more free throws, and did good things down the stretch just a little better than we did.” The 49ers started fast, a 5-0 run with a basket by Eugene Phelps and a 3-pointer by Ware, but both sides were sloppy and it looked, nervous, neither team scoring in the first three minutes—and combining for 14 turnovers in the first five minutes. The teams traded leads seven times in the first half. Drew Gordon led UNM with 18 points and 13 rebounds and his team advanced to play Louisville on Saturday.
Back to the Present
The Fullerton-Dirtbag baseball series has be adjusted with weather in mind…officials said, ”to avoid potential inclement weather and play all three games this weekend…Friday will now feature two games in a split doubleheader, with the first game starting a 2:30 p.m., and a second game beginning at 7 p.m. With Friday being the day with the best forecast for the weekend, the hope is to get two games in with that doubleheader, and then the other games will be played as scheduled if possible, but only three total will be played. So if possible, the series will conclude on Saturday with a 6 p.m. start, but if that contest is rained out, the teams will attempt to finish the series at 1 p.m. on Sunday.” Probable starters remain in their original order…best of the celebrity boosters making bets, probably Brian Urlacher, New Mexico vs. Steve Martin, Long Beach State…the web wags say that “It’s a classic brawn vs. brains contest—Chicago Bears linebacker Urlacher and comedian and LB alum Martin.
The softball notes and quotes are a bit more low keyed, Coach Kin Sowder thinking about some of her newcomers who are making improvements, namely SS Shayna Kimbrough and Cya Neal, plus steady work by Nalani St. Germain. Asked if the rocky first part of the season had her ready for conference play, Sowder did her Lee Corso, “not so fast my friend…we still have a lot of things to work on”. They play five games this weekend in the San Diego Classic and maybe just maybe see work from San Pedro’s Taylor Petty who missed all play so far with pneumonia and now has sore ribs to boot.