The top-seeded Long Beach State 49ers had their dreams of dancing squashed on Saturday night at the Honda Center in Anaheim, losing to No. 5 seed UC Santa Barbara in a 64-56 contest for the ampm Big West Conference Tournament championship.

The Gauchos were led by Tournament MVP Orlando Johnson with a game-high 23 points on 8-19 shooting from the field. Long Beach was paced by 14 points from Big West regular season MVP Casper Ware (on poor 5-17 shooting) and 11 points and 12 rebounds from All-Tournament selection Larry Anderson.

The 49ers shot terribly from the field over the entire course of the game, finishing at a 28.8% clip. They made just 23.5% of three-point shots and 56.0% of free throws.

Santa Barbara did not shoot the ball particularly well, either, but were led by a strong second half performance from Johnson. The junior guard made several difficult jump shots in crucial points of the game, backing down smaller defenders to shoot turnaround jump shots and nailing contested three-pointers over lengthier defenders.

Meanwhile, with Ware ice cold, Long Beach struggled mightily to put points on the board – certainly their most difficult offensive game of the entire season. The 49ers missed no fewer than ten point-blank shots. Monson said that the team’s difficulty with lay-ins and free throws were particularly troubling.

“Everything in basketball is contagious,” said Monson. “It became kind of a virus.”

Ware and Anderson were named to the All-Tournament Team. For Santa Barbara, center Jaime Serna and forward James Nunnally joined Johnson. Forward Lenny Daniel of Cal State Northridge rounded out the group.

Long Beach also fell to Santa Barbara in the conference tournament championship last year.

“They did everything I asked them to do,” Long Beach head coach Dan Monson said of his players. “We said we would win if they defended and rebounded, and I believed that. I didn’t envision us struggling that much offensively. I think we wanted it so bad we just could never relax and make shots. It just wears on you to play that much defense.”

With the win, Santa Barbara earns an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament and will learn their opponent and destination tomorrow.

Senior guard Greg Plater said that after a conference title in the regular season and riding a ten-game winning streak, the 49ers thought they would be playing in the tournament this year. He described himself as “devastated.”

After the game, Long Beach head coach Dan Monson was asked what the chances were that his team would be given an at-large invitation to the tournament.

“Is there anything below zero?” he said. The 49ers will almost certainly be invited to the N.I.T. on Sunday, but that will do little to console the players. Monson described a deeply disappointed locker room, which was empty by the time reporters were allowed in.

“This was our shot, we needed to win this game,” Monson said of a highly successful 2010-11 season that ended Saturday on a sour note. He finished the postgame thoughts with a moment of pride in his team.

“I’ll sleep ok, because I know they left it out there.”