<\/p>\n
The Long Beach State 49ers looked like a team with renewed purpose in front of their home crowd on Thursday night, turning up the defensive heat and holding their opponent to less than 50 points for the first time this season in a 67-47 victory over conference-leading UC Santa Barbara.<\/p>\n
The game was won in the second half, as the 49ers came out of the break with a visible energy boost; pressuring the Gauchos at each position and forcing them into a whopping 29 turnovers for the game. In the second half, UC Santa Barbara shot just 21.4% from the field. Gaucho leading scorer Orlando Johnson had 12 points but scored just one basket in the second half. No other Gauchos scored in double figures.<\/p>\n
Though Long Beach State struggled to find an offensive rhythm in the first half, the increased focus on defense opened up new opportunities in the second half. The 49ers began the half with a 12-4 run and did not look back. <\/span>Sophomore forward T.J. Robinson led all scorers with 19 points \u2013 13 of which came after halftime \u2013 and added 12 rebounds.<\/p>\n In the 49ers\u2019 most sound offensive performance in several games, Casper Ware added 13 while Larry Anderson chipped in 10. Long range specialists Stephan Gilling scored 9 and Greg Plater had 8. Ironic that one of Long Beach\u2019s best offensive displays did not produce eye-popping scoring totals, or that the team shot just 7-25 from three and 6-12 from the free throw line. Still, in terms of penetration and off-ball movement, the 49ers showed new life.<\/p>\n The 49ers won their second straight game and now stand at 2-2 in the Big West Conference standings. UC Santa Barbara falls to 3-2.<\/p>\n Before their current two-game winning streak, Long Beach had dropped five consecutive games and seemed to be stalling on offense and playing listlessly on defense. Thursday night\u2019s game brought a convincing win with renewed energy on both sides of the ball, but the 49ers emerged with the victory thanks to their defensive effort.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you emphasize defense, that can go a long way and settle down your offense,\u201d said head coach Dan Monson, following the game. \u201cIt\u2019s positive that just a week ago we gave up 85 points against Fullerton. It\u2019s gratifying as a coach that guys are trying to do what you\u2019re saying.\u201d<\/p>\n Monson pointed out senior forward Arturas Lazdauskas in particular as a defensive standout. On one telling Santa Barbara possession in the second half, Gaucho star Johnson posted up 49er Larry Anderson on the baseline and spun into a trapping Lazdauskas, who knocked the ball loose and started a fast break that resulted in a Greg Plater basket on the other end. The senior forward notched six rebounds and three steals in 25 minutes of play, but Monson praised Lazdauskas for doing the gritty things that don\u2019t show up in box scores.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought Arturas had as good a game as any guy, since I\u2019ve been here, that only scored two points,\u201d Monson said. Fellow post presence Robinson also had high praises for his teammate.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s the type of player you love laying with but hate playing against,\u201d Robinson said.<\/p>\n That\u2019s exactly the kind of player this team is looking for, according to both players and coaches. Monson described an intense week of practices that involved more off-time than normal, but stopped short of crediting the practice changes for the improved play.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have some offensive guys that are taking ownership on the defensive end,\u201d he said. \u201cShots are going to come and go but you\u2019ve got to win games on the defensive end and we did that tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n In the first half, Long Beach tried to push the tempo and pressure by employing a full-court press in an effort to frustrate the Gaucho offense, but the intensity seemed somewhat artificial and 49er defenders were sometimes caught out of position. Long Beach ditched the press in the second half and focused on physical man-to-man defense that UC Santa Barbara was not physical enough to handle.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were everywhere and they didn\u2019t know what to do,\u201d said sophomore guard Casper Ware, who finished with 13 points, 5 assists and 3 steals, and stimulated the Long Beach offense with crisp ball movement and more attention to getting the ball into the paint. Ware also said that playing their second consecutive game at home was a big boost for the 49ers, who have played just six of their seventeen games at home this season.<\/p>\n Monson sounded pleased with his team\u2019s performance after defeating the conference\u2019s first place team, but also kept things in perspective.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got to get better,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re not good enough right now to win the Big West. We can be.\u201d<\/p>\n Long Beach State next takes on Cal Poly SLO at the Pyramid this Saturday afternoon.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Long Beach State 49ers looked like a team with renewed purpose in a 67-47 victory over conference-leading UC Santa Barbara.<\/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-2394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2394","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=2394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2394\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2394"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=2394"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}