Long Beach State University Athletics
Nixon, Beach Fend Off CS Bakersfield
11/17/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nixon Scores 22 as Beach Wins its Home Opener
49ers Fend Off Pesky Roadrunner Team, 70-73
November 17, 2006
| MEN'S BASKETBALL | 1 | 2 | FINAL | RECORDS |
| CS Bakersfield | 30 | 40 | 70 | 0-2 |
| Long Beach State | 30 | 43 | 73 | 2-1 |
| Leading Scorers: LBSU: Nixon-22; CSUB-Damus-24 Leading Rebounders: LBSU: Gants-8, CSUB-Damus-12 | ||||
| BOX SCORE | ||||
LONG BEACH, CA-- Aaron Nixon put Long Beach State (2-1) on his back, especially in the second half, scoring a season-high 22 points as the 49ers won its home opener over CS Bakersfield (0-2) with a 73-70 win at the Walter Pyramid.
After the pesky Roadrunners closed to within four with under a minute left, a speedy Nixon outran the defense and scored on a fastbreak bucket with 39.5 seconds left to keep the 49ers up for good, at 69-63 as Bakersfield could not catch up from that point.
"This is our third game in four games, but give CS Bakersfield credit, they played hard, and really pounded the glass," said Head Coach Larry Reynolds. "We were a little rushed on shot selection and the game tempo was a little ragged and we pushed it a little too much, but our players were a little excited by the home atmosphere. Our shot selection and decision making will improve as we get in better game conditioning."
Sterling Byrd added 15 points, and Kejuan Johnson scored 13 points. Artis Gant a career-best eight rebounds as both teams shot 37 from the field.
"We played well for the most part, but we let them back in the game at one point," said Gant. "At halftime we made the necessary adjustments to close them out in the second half."
A three-pointer with 0.7 seconds left cut the lead in half, as Carl Damus scored 24 points and added 11 rebounds off the bench. Dwuan Rice had 13 points, while Richard Andrews added a double double of 11 points and 10 rebounds.
Nixon was all over the offensive end for the 49ers in the second half, scoring, passing and defending the 49ers to a 10-point advantage.
After Richard Andrews steal and layup cut the Long Beach lead to 53-50 with 7:29 left, a Nixon three-pointer followed by a driving baseline layup, made it 58-50 with 6:21 left. He then connected on passes to Kejuan Johnson followed by Kevin Houston on consecutive three-pointers to make it 64-54 with 4:24 left. A Nixon mid-range jumper put the 49ers up 45-37 with 13:42 left, capping an early 13-3 second half run.
A key defensive stop, also keyed by Nixon, with the 49ers up by eight with two minutes left also kept the 49ers in front.
The 49ers had led by as many as 14 points in the first half, before CS Bakersfield tied it at the buzzer with a half, ending 18-4 run.
After a 10-1 LBSU run boosted the lead to 14 points, at 26-12, Bakersfield snuck back into the game at 28-25 on six straight points by Rice with 2:52 left. CSUB closed the half on an 18-4 run to tie it at 30-30 on a buzzer beating dunk. After a hot start, hitting 11 of their first 23 and marking themselves to that 14-point advantage, the 49ers missed 10-of-11 to close the half. The 49ers shot 35 percent, while the Roadrunners hit 32 percent of their shots.
The Roadrunners are provisional Division-I participants and will be eligible for post-season play starting in 2010-11.
The 49ers are next in action when they travel to USC on Friday, November 24 at 7:30 p.m. The game will also be available on Prime Ticket, a regional network of the Fox Sports Network (FSN).
