All photos by Sam Madamba

The Long Beach State 49ers kicked off a much-anticipated season in front of a record crowd on Saturday, playing No. 25-ranked San Diego State tight before the visiting Aztecs pulled away for an 81-65 victory.

Sophomore forward Kawhi Leonard paced SDSU with game-highs of 21 points and 12 rebounds, while junior T.J. Robinson led Long Beach with 19 and 9. Only two players saw action off the bench for Long Beach State, as the team’s five starters played 183 out of 200 minutes and were noticeably fatigued down the stretch.

The season-opener and Homecoming game drew a sell-out crowd of 5,143, a record in the Walter Pyramid. It was the first time a Top 25-ranked team has played in the Pyramid since 2004.

The teams were evenly matched as extremely athletic and talented mid-major programs that see this season as an opportunity to make noise on a national scale. San Diego State was selected to win the Mountain West Conference and Long Beach State was predicted to finish second in the Big West.

Both teams showed why so much is expected of them this year. The Aztecs had an obvious size advantage – especially in the post – but were also more athletic than the 49ers, making them extremely difficult to defend. Leonard is a likely candidate for Mountain West Conference Player of the Year, while point guard D.J. Gay made four 3-pointers and scored 20 points.

Long Beach looked impressive as well, with several players showing clear improvement over last season. Robinson has improved his shooting range, which adds new weapons to his already diverse offensive arsenal. He even connected on a 3-pointer. Junior guard Casper Ware, against one of the toughest matchups he will face all season in Gay, worked the screen and roll with Robinson to perfection and scored 13 points in the game. Fellow juniors Eugene Phelps and Larry Anderson did not shoot well, but played excellent defensively against talented opponents.

Robinson (pictured right) and Ware were both selected to the preseason All-Conference First Team, and sent the sell-out crowd into a frenzy with a spectacular alley-oop to tie the game just before halftime. Ware pushed the ball in transition and threw a pass skyward that Robinson corralled and dunked with two hands over a pair of Aztec defenders.

The game was tied 42-42 at halftime, and Long Beach even held a 55-54 lead with less than ten minutes to play. But as the 49er starters began to tire, delays in their defensive rotations allowed San Diego State to rattle off an 11-0 run behind three 3-pointers from reserve guard James Rahon. The 49ers would not recover.

“We did a lot of good things,” said Long Beach State head coach Dan Monson. “We battled and played very hard for 35 minutes and kind of ran out of gas. That’s going to happen when you play five guys that way.”

Monson relied heavily on the starters that made up nearly 80-percent of the team’s scoring last season. The team’s depth is clearly its Achilles heel and only senior Tristan Wilson and junior Edis Dervisevic came off the bench to relieve the starters. Senior guard Greg Plater and junior Casper Ware both suffered from cramps due to fatigue. Monson said he left the starters in because they gave the team its best chance to win,

“I just decided to ride them out and see if they could hang in there,” he said, also explaining that he did not do a good job of using timeouts to give the starters extra rest.

Ware in particular needs to rest because he is susceptible to calf cramps, and a clutch late game performer. He admitted that fatigue caused him to miss opportunities that he would normally be capable of. But when Ware sat, Monson elected to move Anderson to the point rather than insert backup point guard Jerramy King. Monson said that he also would have liked to play sophomore forward Kyle Richardson, but did not because the game was within reach.

“It’s not going to last for long,” said Ware (pictured right), of the starters logging such intense minutes. “I’m quite sure we’re going to get this rotation right on Monday. Newer people will get a chance to show what they can do.”

Monson said that fatigue is no excuse, that the 49ers “reverted” to relying on jump shots and that the team’s late game effort was “inexcusable.”

“This is their third year now,” he said of his four best players. “They’ve got to sustain things.”

The 49ers had just one day’s rest and will host San Francisco State on Monday night.

While Monson was pleased overall with his team’s performance, he was disappointed in their shot selection and thought that it hurt the team when poor attempts went in the basket. Long Beach State made three of their first four 3-pointers but shot just 1-11 in the second half and 5-23 in the game. Monson said that Robinson’s extended shooting range this season is both a blessing and a curse.

“It helps because people have to guard [Robinson] out there, but that doesn’t mean he’s got to shoot them,” Monson said. “That’s where this team has got to grow. I thought shot selection was horrendous. I told them, ‘You’re playing with fire here with shot selection.’ It helps but you’ve got to know when to use them.”

Robinson agreed that the team was perhaps too eager early in the first half.

“We were very excited, too excited at the beginning,” he said. “I think we overexerted ourselves in the beginning, because of the hype from the crowd, and we paid for it in the end.”

Despite the loss, Robinson said the game was a step in the right direction.

“This was great for our experience going up against a Top 25 team,” he said. “It was a great way for us to start the season and great for our program.”

News & Notes
When head coach Dan Monson called Tristan Wilson’s number, the wingman first forgot to grab a towel for the player he was replacing. A teammate threw him a towel, but Wilson then forgot to check in at the scorer’s table and nearly walked right onto the court.

It’s safe to say that Wilson was excited to play.

“Oh, was I!” he said after the game. Wilson (pictured right) transferred from an Illinois junior college last season and was expected to help the team right away, but suffered a knee injury and sat out the entire year.

On Saturday he was the first player off the bench.

“It’s surreal because it’s my very first D-1 game and you do get a little ahead of yourself,” Wilson said. “It was surprising at first because the speed of the game is a lot faster, but once I got used to that I was able to get into the flow and try to help my team win.”

Wilson scored 6 points and grabbed 4 rebounds in just 16 minutes of play. Monson said that he will be one of the most important players on the roster this season because of uncertainty on the bench.

“Tristan gave us energy and I didn’t see that coming,” Monson said. “He had a good look in his eye and responded and that was a very positive thing.”

Wilson says he’s more than willing to do the dirty work and live up to his practice nickname, the Junkyard Dog.

“Coach already spoke to me about what I need to do,” he said. “I’m perfectly fine with my role and I’m going to keep doing what I do.”