With Reports From Long Beach State Sports Information Dept.
Long Beach State was able to stay with Fullerton when the Titans made a late second half charge, and a Larry Anderson free-throw made the difference.
I rode the Monson Maniacs bus out to Fullerton and chronicled the journey into the “concrete jungle”
Enjoy the video…
For High Quality, click HQ on bottom right
When it came time to make a play with the game on the line, it was Long Beach State that stepped up with time running out against Cal State Fullerton on Wednesday night.
Larry Anderson stole the ball from the Titans with time running out and then avoided a turnover and jump ball while lying on the ground to secure a 75-74 win in front of 4,025 fans. Anderson passed the ball while sitting on the seat of his pants and then Stephan Gilling dove to knock the ball into the back court allowing the clock to run out and The Beach to move back into first place in the Big West Conference.
The win avenged a 61-60 loss to the Titans on Jan. 29 at the Walter Pyramid. In that game Josh Akognon hit the game-winner with less than five second to play. This time The Beach (13-11, 8-4 Big West) kept the ball out of Akognon’s hands on the final play forcing someone else to try and beat them. Akognon finished with 27 points on 9-of-14 shooting against a variety of Beach defenses.
Anderson and Gilling were the heroes for LBSU. Gilling led the 49ers with 17 points, 12 of which came in the second half when he made 4-of-6 threes with two of them coming after the Titans (13-13, 7-7 Big West) took their biggest lead of the game, 58-52, with 9:13 to play.
Anderson finished with 16 points, 10 in the first half, six rebounds and three assists. Casper Ware added 11 points and seven assists, while Cornell Williams came off the bench to score eight points on 3-of-4 shooting.
Long Beach State controlled the first half leading by as many as 12, 35-23, with 2:46 to play. Akognon kept the Titans close scoring 16 of his team’s first half points, which allowed Cal State Fullerton to cut the lead to five at the half.
The Titans scored seven of the first 10 points out of the break to cut the lead to 40-39. LBSU battled back pushing the lead back to seven at 50-43 on a 3-pointer by Gilling, but CSF went on a 15-2 run to take its biggest lead of the game.
The Beach stopped the run when Williams canned a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 58-55. Greg Plater added a bucket to cut the lead to one, 58-57. Neither team would lead by more than three the rest of the way. Cal State Fullerton’s last lead came on a jumper by Aaron Thompson with 2:58 to play. Gilling answered giving The Beach a 72-70 lead on a 3-pointer 12 seconds later. CSF tied it twice more, but Long Beach State took the lead for good on a free throw by Larry Anderson with 32 seconds to play setting up the defensive heroics by LBSU.
Long Beach State finished making 27-of-50 (54 percent) of its shots, 8-of-17 (47.1 percent) 3-pointers and 13-of-16 (81.3 percent) free throws. The 49ers out-rebounded the Titans 28-26, but committed six more turnovers. LBSU was 14-of-23 (60.9 percent) from the floor in the second half, while making 5-of-8 (62.5 percent) threes.