Conference champion Long Beach State will contend for the Big West Conference tournament championship on Saturday night, after defeating No. 7 UC Riverside in a 74-63 contest at the Honda Center in Anaheim on Friday night behind 21 points and 9 rebounds from First Team All-Conference guard Larry Anderson.

The win places Long Beach in the conference championship game with No. 5 UC Santa Barbara at 5:30pm on Saturday at the Honda Center. Santa Barbara defeated No. 3 Cal State Northridge handily on Friday night, 83-63. The winner will move on to represent the Big West in the NCAA Tournament.

“We’re right where we want to be,” said Anderson. “We just need to keep the mindset and stay hungry.”

Long Beach jumped out to a 15-0 lead against Riverside on Friday and took a 40-28 lead into halftime when Anderson hit a buzzer-beating three. Conference Player of the Year Casper Ware was quiet on the night, with several big shots but finishing with just 16 points on 3-9 shooting. The 49ers compensated with 17 points from guard Greg Plater and 13 points and 9 rebounds from forward T.J. Robinson. Their hot start carried them through more difficult times.

“Long Beach got the run on us really quick and hard, built up a sizeable lead and put us in a hole,” said UC Riverside head coach Jim Woolridge. “They responded like a champion would respond.”

Long Beach Post Sports will have live updates from the Saturday night game at the Twitter page @LBPOSTSports.