Long Beach State University Athletics
Waves Slip Past 49ers
12/17/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Pepperdine Holds On In Second Half
MALIBU, CA- Tashaan Forehan-Kelly had 23 points and Mike Gerrity added 21 as the Pepperdine Waves held on for a 92-86 win over Long Beach State on Saturday evening at Firestone Fieldhouse. The Waves (2-6) snapped a four-game losing skid with the win. Jibril Hodges led the 49ers (2-6) with 18 points. The 49ers were playing from behind the entire second half after falling down 46-32 at the half. After Pepperdine opened up the second half with a 6-0 run to take its biggest lead at 52-32, the 49ers managed to whittle away and finally get the deficit under 10 points at 62-53 on a bucket by Kejuan Johnson at 10:13. Long Beach then was able to pull to with 81-74 after a Shawn Hawkins three at 1:56, but the Waves were able to salt the game away at the free throw line. Hodges scored 13 of his 18 in the second half while Johnson and Kevin Houston both added 17 points. "I was happy with some of the consistency in the game," said 49er Head Coach Larry Reynolds. " We need the three to be more successful, but we still need to get to the basket. We gave them up as quick as we got them back, but we have to give credit to the kids for staying in there and fighting when they could have just given up. We gave up too many easy points." Pepperdine shot .522 (35-67) from the field for the game and committed jut 14 turnovers. The 49ers shot .594 (19-32) in the second half, but just .462 (30-65) overall after shooting .33 (11-33) in the first half. Long Beach hurt itself at the free throw line connecting on only 15-27 (.556) of its charity tosses. The 49ers were able to out-rebound the Waves 40 to 38, as Mark Dawson had nine boards. Dawson played his best game as a 49er, finishing with career-high's in points (8) and rebounds (9). Johnson, in his first game as a 49er, was four-of-seven from the field and five-of-six at the free throw line. He also added three rebounds. Leading scorer Aaron Nixon was limited to just seven points in the game and Hawkins finished with five, well below his average of 11.7 points per game. Pepperdine took advantage of its running game in the first half, shooting an impressive .545 (18-33) from the field, en route to a 46-32 lead. Forehan-Kelly had 13 first half points while Galick added 10. Leading 9-6 early on, the Waves expanded that margin to 17-8 with 14:10 left. Long Beach made its best run of the half as The Beach went on a 14-6 tear to pull to within 23-22 after a Mark Dawson slam at 10:28. The remainder of the half belonged to Pepperdine. Forehan-Kelly sparked a 17-4 run with seven points lifting the Waves to a 40-26 lead at 6:08. Long Beach had just one field goal in the final seven-plus minutes of the half, a three-pointer by Johnson at 7:29. The 49ers scored just six points in the final seven minutes of the half, all coming from the free throw line. The 49ers were 11-33 from the field in the half, and 7-14 at the free throw line. The 49ers will next be in action on Thursday, December 22 when they host Maryland-Baltimore County at 7:35 pm at the Walter Pyramid. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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