Story by Mike Guardabascio
From LBPOSTSports.com: On the road, playing No. 25 Wisconsin in the Kohl Center, the 49ers put quite a scare into those Badgers, but Wisconsin made one or two more plays than Long Beach State, and defeated the 49ers 68-61. LBSU is now 0-2, having lost to Wisconsin and BYU by just a combined 17 points, much better than most expected them to do on the road against two tough opponents.
Sunday’s game against Wisconsin didn’t just look close, either—Long Beach really almost knocked them off, in a game local fans were able to watch in high definition on the Big Ten TV network. How close was the upset? With 1:04 left in the game, and trailing by just one point, Donovan Morris—who was held to just 12 points on 5-17 shooting in the game—squared and shot a three. The ball missed by about an inch, just a touch too hard. The Badgers took the rebound down court and, with thirty seconds left, Marcus Landry hit a three pointer to clinch the game.
One inch. Thirty seconds. That’s how close this team, which was picked to finish eighth in the Big West by the conference’s coaches, came to beating the number 25 team in the nation. And what’s more, it didn’t look like a fluke.
The 49ers played good defensive ball, though they were unable to contain Landry, who finished with 23 points. The Big A, Arturas Lazdauskas, was huge off the bench and looks to be a season-long contributor, with 8 points and 9 rebounds, and a much-needed relief presence in the paint. 28 of the 49ers’ points came off the bench, and 11 players scored for The Beach, demonstrating a depth that they didn’t even remotely have last season.
Backed by his teammates’ consistency, Morris showed his ability to take the game over in the second half. Though he was stymied for most of the game, he showed the playmaking ability that makes him special about halfway through the second. Trailing by eight, and starting to look like they were falling out of a game they’d been competitive in, D. Mo clicked into another gear—it was obvious to anyone watching, either in Wisconsin or here in SoCal. He scored the 49ers’ next 8 points, single-handedly bringing the Beach back into the game, as the score narrowed to 57-55 with seven left in the game.
“When he gets going and he gets in the flow, he’s as hard to guard as anybody in the country,” Monson told the AP after the game.
Though they come away with the loss, the 49ers have nothing to hang their heads about—often when coaches schedule games over their teams’ heads, an inability to compete can damage a squad’s confidence. But when it pays off, when a team can hang and play with some of the best in the nation—well, then, that’s when the Big West doesn’t look so big anymore.
The 49ers are next in action on Saturday, November 22nd, when they take on Weber State at 4:05pm in their homecoming match.
For more on the game, check out the newest episode of SportsNight, LB’s only source for sports talk radio—we get into the game at about 43:55.
