The Long Beach State men’s basketball team heads to Tempe tonight for a tough but winnable game against the Arizona State Sun Devils, just three days after giving away a late lead against Saint Mary’s in the John Wooden Classic at the Honda Center.

The 49ers jumped out to a 10-0 lead to start the game on Saturday and took a 41-37 lead into halftime, but 6-foot-9 Australian sophomore Mitchell Young (28 points off the bench) took advantage inside for the Gaels and they grabbed their first lead of the game with 6:00 to play.

Long Beach didn’t do themselves any favors with questionable shot selection down the stretch and they fell by an 82-74 score.

“We have a disappointed locker room right now and I’m happy about that,” said head coach Dan Monson after the game. “We played well enough in stretches to win this game but we’ve just got to be more consistent.”

One player who has been Mr. Consistent for the 49ers this season is point guard Casper Ware. Against Saint Mary’s, he scored 10 and handed out 8 assists but it was his control over the offense and tempo that kept Long Beach in the game. This week, he was rewarded by being named to a distinguished list of point guards across the nation that are candidates for the 2011 Bob Cousy Award, which will go to the best point guard at the end of the year.

Ware is averaging 14.8 points per game this season, but it’s his conference-lead in assists that makes the biggest impact (also second in steals and assists-to-turnovers ratio). Against the Sun Devils tonight, Ware will be tasked with preparing his troops for battle against another tough opponent.