Sports is or are clearly in the toy department of life and, well, entertainment is the barometer with which we measure the return on the investment, be it donations or time spent.

So if you have a desire to check the ROI on happenings in 49er-ville the ledger sheet is fairly impressive these days. The bell cows of college basketball both kept it exciting.

The men had to go to double over time to beat UC Riverside on Thursday and then endured 16 lead changes, six of those coming in the second-half to beat the Fullerton Titans 81-71. With 7:39 left in the game, the Titans would take the lead at 60-59, but LBSU didn’t let that lead last long as they went ahead 62-60 after a free throw by Deng and layup by King.

The ladies had suffered from a suspect blocking foul on Thursday in a one point loss to UCR. On Saturday it took heroine and heroic efforts from two talented sophomores, Devin Hudson and Lauren Spargo, to energize a 15-1 run late in the game and set up a sigh of relief 45-39 comeback victory over Cal State Fullerton Saturday evening. The Beach program had a bunch of former stars in the house from the sixties to, well last spring, and it was important to show them that the flame was still burning.

The top worker for the Beach was Devin Hudson who collected her second consecutive double-double, and fifth of the season, with a career-high 17 points to go along with 14 rebounds. The energizer bunny Lauren Spargo dialed long distance for 11 points (3-of-7 from beyond the arc.)

Long Beach State is back in action on this Saturday hosting UC Irvine in a black and blue contest for that Dukes banquet deal. The game is at 1PM.

Meanwhile the Niner men remained in first-place in the Big West (10-8, 6-1) and ended its three-game losing skid in Titan Gym. The Bi Guns were James Ennis and Keala King. Ennis sparkled in the stat line with his third double-double of the season and extended his double-digit scoring streak to 23 games. He led everybody in Historic Titan Gym with 23 points, 19 of which came in the second half. As impressive as his scoring, The Menace Ennis also had three assists; two steals and was 11-of-12 from the free throw line. Mr. King had 11 rebounds and his second double-double of the season. Not bad for a guy still knocking the rust off.

The Beach team dominated on the boards–a season-high 51 compared to CSUF’s 31. They held a Fullerton team that averaged over 80 points per contest to just 71 points and 39 percent shooting.

Their head coach was pleased. “This team grew a lot this week,” skipper Dan Monson would say. “These were character wins for these guys. In both games, we got behind on the road and lost momentum, but they were able to trust each other and pull together to win. This is only the third week these guys have played together as a team and I think their chemistry is really starting to show.

“It was great to see James have such an impressive performance since he’s been a little frustrated lately. He showed why he’s our best player down the stretch.”

The other entry for excitement was the home opener for men’s volleyball, who kept things exciting on Friday with a taut 3-2 come from behind win over Hawaii, just enough drama to make the home folks sweat. And come back on Saturday.

Tickets sold, this time the ninth-ranked Long Beach State men’s volleyball team slammed the Warriors, 25-14, 25-18, 25-18. Friday went for over two and a half hours, Saturday evening a crisp deadline friendly 1:21. The two wins moved the Beach boys to a record of 5-2, 3-1 in the MPSF. Long Beach State is back on the road this weekend bussing south to UC Irvine and UC San Diego.

MORE FROM THE NAPKIN: Where are theys—former Beach men’s hoop helper Bob Thate is the Clippers’ shooting coach and former LB QB Mike McCoy is the new head coach of the troubled NFL entry in San Diego (McCoy played on Long Beach State’s very last football team. He was the 49ers’ starting quarterback for five games in 1991, the program’s final season. McCoy transferred to Utah when Long Beach State shut down football).

Oh yes, former Dirtbag journeyman Brandon Hyde is the keynote speaker for Thursday night’s leadoff baseball dinner. He is a player personnel guy for the Chicago Cubs and is expected to at least swing a golf club on Friday but not likely to swing a bat for the two baseball games on Saturday, BTW, the newest rich baseball alum is Jason Vargas who got $8.5 mill one year deal for signing with the Angels and escaping Seattle. Geez, you do have to have LB to spell MLB, I mean Mr. Weaver is in that rotation too.

Sad add. They say it happens in threes and I felt that loss this past weekend when two guys I watched on TV, Earl Weaver and Stan Musial, and my first college baseball boss Miami U’s innovative Ron Fraser, all died. They left the game better for us all.

Insiders who follow Sand Volleyball expect UCSB’s Kathy Gregory to take a special interest in the outdoor stuff now that she has hung up her Gaucho gear for the indoor game. Not likely to see men’s sand volleyball for a while, at least until the women get the required 40 teams to make it an official NCAA sport.

This year the Century Club’s Hall of Fame inductees consists of three individual LB related celebs– Misty May, Danielle Scott, and Brian Gimmillaro. The event is February 5th at the Grand Long Beach Events Center. A cocktail reception will begin at 5:00PM followed by dinner and an awards ceremony at 6:30PM. Get busy since often this event sells out. Last add tennis, the Beach racked up a 29-3 record during the three-day Beach Winter Invitational. Next up is Cal State over there on Friday and then Riverside back in LB at high noon on Saturday. Both the Titans and the Highlanders are winless and hungry. In fact I am hungry now, so put the food away and hit the light on your way out.—DR. DAN