![\"\"](\"images\/archive\/sports\/image1264907021-62296.jpg\")
It\u2019s too early to tell for sure, but Long Beach State\u2019s convincing 80-58 home victory over UC Davis makes you wonder whether the team hadn\u2019t struggled to their 2-4 conference record so much as they just took a Winter vacation.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s too early to tell for sure, but Long Beach State\u2019s convincing 80-58 home victory over UC Davis makes you wonder whether the team hadn\u2019t struggled to their 2-4 conference record so much as they just took a Winter vacation.<\/p>\n
Class was certainly back in session on Saturday afternoon, as the 49ers looked like a team with as much ability as anyone \u2013 moving with efficiency and decisiveness on offense, while holding the Aggies to 29.6% shooting in the second half. The victory was Long Beach State\u2019s second straight, and they now stand at 4-4 in Big West play.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we played probably close to one of our better games,\u201d head coach Dan Monson said. \u201cAll of a sudden you get a little swagger and confidence back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sophomore forward Eugene Phelps continued his rapid development, scoring a career high 21 points with a variety of low post twists and spins. Junior guard Greg Plater continued his hot shooting with 16 points on four 3-pointers, as the two broke out of their role player mold to carry the 49er offense.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a growing up thing,\u201d Plater said of his team\u2019s improved play in the last week. \u201cWe haven\u2019t gotten to the level that we need to be but we\u2019re getting better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Larry Anderson scored 12, while T.J. Robinson added 10 and 13 rebounds. Casper Ware exploited seams in the Davis defense to the tune of 8 assists.<\/p>\n
The 49ers jumped out to a 16-point lead in the first half and watched it dwindle to 8 at halftime, then began the second half with a 10-1 run and the Aggies were unable to make up any ground. The lead was never threatened.<\/p>\n
Aggies star scorers Mark Payne and Joe Harden were held to 22 points on 7-19 shooting, thanks to stifling defense from Larry Anderson and Eugene Phelps, respectively. The 49ers also employed double-teaming schemes and occasionally a 2-3 zone defense to stop the high-powered UC Davis offense. Payne and forward Dominic Calegari lead the Aggies with 16 points apiece.<\/p>\n
Long Beach State also found an advantage with their full-court press, which worked wonders in the first half by forcing a sense of urgency in the UC Davis offense. The Aggies had to expend extra energy to simply initiate their offense \u2013 not an easy task on the tail end of a grueling road trip. By the end of the first half, Payne and Harden were rarely on the floor at the same time, and the Aggies\u2019 best players were visibly winded.<\/p>\n
The 49ers also dominated in two areas that coach Monson said were focus points for his team: inside scoring and defending the three-point line. Monson said that Long Beach State was aiming for 40 points in the paint (they scored 48) and held the Aggies to 0-9 from three-point range in the second half (3-20 for the game).<\/p>\n
Long Beach State will have to continue their inspired play this week, as they host a Cal State Fullerton team that dismantled the 49ers earlier in the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to get back at them,\u201d Plater said. \u201cThey played with a lot of heart last time and we\u2019ve got to come in and show them we\u2019re the better team.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Class was back in session on Saturday afternoon, as the 49ers looked like a team with as much ability as anyone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-2289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2289\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2289"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=2289"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}