December 20, 2002
SPOKANE, WA-- Cory Violette and Ronny Turiaf both had 17 points and Tony Skinner and Richard Fox each added 14 as the Gonzaga Bulldogs defeated Long Beach State 90-55 on Friday evening at The Kennel in Spokane, WA. The Bulldogs shot an impressive .623 (33-53) from the field to improve to 7-3 on the season, while the 49ers fell to 1-7, suffering its sixth consecutive defeat. The 49ers and Bulldogs played even up for the majority of the first half. The 49ers led 11-8 at the 15:32 mark and were up 25-24 at 7:09, but from there on out it was all Bulldogs. Gonzaga outscored the 49ers 19-7 in the final seven minutes of the half to take a 43-32 halftime advantage. The 49ers were still only 11 down, 49-38, at the 16:02 mark in the second half, but the Bulldogs then turned it on. Gonzaga held the 49ers scorless for five minutes and went on a 10-0 run to take a commanding 59-38 lead at the 11:31 mark. "You kind of have to pick you poison with Gonzaga," said 49er head coach Larry Reynolds. " We tried to take away their three's, and we did a good job of that, but they were able to score inside and were very successful there. We concentrated on stopping Stepp's outside game, but he did a great job of finding his teammates and that showed as he finished with 16 assists. Alex (Graham) played well. This is not an easy place to play. He went in and did pretty well against some very experienced players. It is still a growing and learning process for him, but he's getting more confident every day." Tony Darden led the 49ers with 11 points, but all of those came in the first half. Gonzaga was able to slow down Darden as he was 0-7 from the field in the second half. Kevin Roberts added nine points and Alex Graham had a career-high eight points off the bench. Gonzaga's leading scorer Blake Stepp was held to just four points, his lowest total of the season, but he made up for it by registering a school-record 16 assists. The Bulldogs had five players score in double figures, shot .696 (16-23) in the second half and forced 20 49er turnovers. The Bulldogs out-rebounded the 49ers, but onloy by a 34 to 29 count. Antoine Jackson led the 49ers with eight boards, while Lemi Williams and Roberts had four each. Long Beach shot just 28.2 (11-39) from the field in the second hanf and was just 1-13 (.077) from three-point range. The 49ers will break for the holidays and will next be in action on Monday, December 30 when they host Portland at 7:35 pm in The Pyramid.
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