A statement was made in the Walter Pyramid last night, as the Long Beach State 49ers sent a clear message to the rest of the Big West Conference with a convincing 75-62 home victory against Utah State \u2013 consistently ranked among the nation\u2019s top mid-major programs.<\/p>\n
The 49ers played their most consistent game of the season on both sides of the ball, shooting 61.9% from the field during a decisive second half while holding Utah State to 38.2% for the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was encouraging,\u201d said head coach Dan Monson after the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any doubt in my mind that that was our most complete game of this year, especially defensively.\u201d<\/p>\n
Particularly, Monson said, the 49ers were able to frustrate Utah State\u2019s offensive attack with their athleticism and strategic schemes.<\/p>\n
Point guard Casper Ware played exceptional physical defense against Jared Quayle, the Aggies\u2019 6-foot-1 sharpshooter who was just 2-11 from the field for 7 points. Long Beach defenders forced the ball out of Quayle\u2019s hands by double-teaming him with Ware and a forward in the backcourt.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to stop a good player like that,\u201d Ware said. \u201cSo I just wanted to frustrate [Quayle] and razz him a little bit; make him work a little harder.\u201d<\/p>\n
Utah State was paced by 22 points and 7 rebounds from forward Tai Wesley, but he was the only Aggie in double figures.<\/p>\n
Long Beach State, on the other hand, had four players in double figures and were led by T.J. Robinson\u2019s 25 points and 11 rebounds. Ware added 19 points and 7 assists, while Larry Anderson had 13 and Stephan Gilling had 12. <\/p>\n
Robinson put an exclamation point on a strong second half with a vicious left-handed baseline jam over a hapless Aggie defender, who could only foul Robinson in defense. He missed the free-throw, but the dunk gave Long Beach a 75-60 lead and ignited the crowd of 2,600+ in the Pyramid.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn animal came out of me or something,\u201d Robinson said about the dunk, chuckling at his own athleticism.<\/p>\n
The same can be said for the entire Long Beach squad. At some point early in the second half, the 49ers realized that they could overpower Utah State with their athleticism. They did just that, disrupting the Aggies\u2019 offensive flow and attacking the basket on offense.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really thought that we were just faster to the ball at the end of the game,\u201d Ware said. <\/p>\n
They were faster all over the court, exhibiting an athleticism that clearly outclassed Utah State and will be the 49ers\u2019 greatest attribute against Big West Conference opponents. It will also likely be the deciding factor when Long Beach heads to Loyola Maramount this Monday.<\/p>\n
Of concern, though, is the fact that all five starters played nearly the entire game for Long Beach. Monson said he was reluctant to go to his bench because he didn\u2019t want to take any chances with what he felt was an unsafe lead. Only three non-starters saw playing time, and none saw more than 15 minutes. All five starters played more than 32 minutes.<\/p>\n
Another concern was the play of Larry Anderson, who seems to have settled into a role of deferment; not exactly the way you\u2019d like one of the Big West\u2019s best all-around scorers to play. Anderson finished with 13 points on 4-10 shooting, but scored much of his total in the second half when the 49ers had already amassed a comfortable lead. It\u2019s not a stretch to say that Anderson has been indecisive and even hesitant with the ball in his hands since the West Virginia game on Thanksgiving Day. <\/p>\n
Long Beach proved that they can soundly defeat a quality opponent despite these challenges, but 49er fans would surely prefer to have both issues solved by the time Big West play rolls around.<\/p>\n
Coach Monson sounded encouraged by his team\u2019s performance, and what it means for the steps he is trying to take with the program.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we can somehow get by on Monday [at Loyola Maramount], we\u2019ll have won all our mid-major games,\u201d said Monson, who said several times that he is trying to build Long Beach State into a consistent power program among the likes of Utah State. <\/p>\n
\u201cI tell these guys, Utah State wouldn\u2019t go out and have a letdown on Monday.\u201d<\/p>\n
In that sense, the 49ers face a test against Loyola Maramount. But after that, they\u2019ll face two Master\u2019s dissertations in the form of visits to #3 Kentucky and #9 Duke. Long Beach hasn\u2019t fared well in games against ranked teams thus far in the season, losing big to West Virginia and Texas (though they played well in a loss to Clemson).<\/p>\n
For now, the 49ers made a statement and \u2013 maybe more importantly \u2013 impressed their coach, especially on the defensive end.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think we\u2019re [on the level of Utah State] yet,\u201d Monson said. \u201cI still think their program is at a different level than ours. But I feel a lot better about us than I did 24 hours ago.”<\/p>\n
\u201cThey passed their final test tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Long Beach State men’s basketball team played their most consistent game of the season on both sides of the ball, disrupting Utah State’s offense while boasting four players who scored in double figures (led by 25 from T.J. Robinson).<\/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-2533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2533","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=2533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2533\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2533"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=2533"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}