Guest article by contributor Mike Guardabascio.
It was the story of the 2007-08 season for the CSULB men’s basketball team Thursday night in the Pyramid: dazzling displays, followed closely by complete collapses at the fundamental level, as the 49ers fell to the Fullerton Titans before a large (and rowdy) home crowd. The final score, 91-75, neither captures how well Long Beach played, nor how poorly.
The crowd was there in full force, ready to see the next stage of this heated rivalry, and desperately hoping that the 4-14 49ers could pull off a huge upset against the 12-6 Titans. For a while, it looked like it was going to happen. In the first half, the 49ers played solid defense and shot pretty well from the field, sinking over 50% of their jumpers. Late in the first, though, fans who’ve been following team this season saw a familiar sight: the hot tap started running cold. The 49ers started leaving easy passing lanes open, threw two consecutive passes out of bounds, and allowed Fullerton to make a few embarrassing shot blocks. If not for two Donovan Morris three-pointers in the final minute before the break, the Beach would have been in a deeper hole than the 6-point deficit they faced at halftime, already exacerbated by a last second Junior Russell 3-point prayer from way behind the line that somehow fell.
Coming out after half, the 49ers were hoping to get that icewater heated up again, but it never happened. The Titans continued to use a significant size and weight advantage to bully the home team, and when the Beach took the line (which they did often as a result of Fullerton’s 17 team fouls) they didn’t convert, shooting under 70%. The last real competitive play came on a breakaway a few minutes into the second half, when Cornel Williams (who was only 2 for 11 from the field) missed an alley-oop dunk, bouncing the ball awkwardly off the rim, leading to a quick and easy Fullerton layup. If the dunk had gone in, the 49ers would have been down by 7. Instead, they went down by 11, and for the next fifteen-plus minutes, never trailed by less than ten points, and were as far back as 23.
Almost across the board, the 49ers had no defensive answer to the Titans in the second half, and four Fullerton players finished with 14 points or more. As usual, Donovan Morris was a bright spot for the Beach, with a game-high 31 points, and a team-high two steals in 40 minutes of game time. Maurice Clady was three for three from behind the arc, chipping in a career-high 13 points. None of this is new for CSULB: the key for the young team is trying to figure out how to make their second half look like their first half. If they can do that, they’ll start winning more games. Until then, the water at the Beach is going to keep running hot and cold.
Guard Greg Plater has put together an impressive freshman season, notching seven points in twenty minutes Thursday night.
Students returned to the Pyramid after Winter Break to torment Fullerton.
Long Beach fans are getting much more out of Donovan Morris than anyone expected.
D-Mo goes up for two of his first half 19.
Junior guard Maurice Clady attacks the basket at just 5’8.
Clady scored a career-high thirteen points, including 3-3 from behind the arc.
Cornel Williams has been a reliable weapon this year, but shot just 2-11 from the field against the Titans.
Williams’ baseline drive is thwarted in the second half.
Plater contests a triple by Marcus Crenshaw, who ended up with 17.
The 49ers will sink or swim on the back of Donovan Morris.