Long Beach State University Athletics
Long Beach State University
6-19, 3-9
CSUN
18-6, 10-2
49ers Fall To First Place Matadors
2/21/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 20, 2008
LONG BEACH - Long Beach State (6-19, 3-9 Big West) hung around with Big West leader CS Northridge (18-6, 10-2 Big West), coming within a basket with under two minutes remaining, but were unable to get any closer, as the Matadors escaped the Walter Pyramid with a 82-78 win on Wednesday evening.
Donovan Morris led the 49ers with 23 points, while Greg Plater chipped in with 15 and Maurice Clady had 14 points and a team-high six assists as LBSU shot .483 (14-29) from the field in second half. The 49ers made 32-of-43 free throws in the game and scored a season-best 54 points in the second half. Long Beach also battled the Matadors on the boards, as both teams ended up with 32 rebounds. Plater led the way with six boards for the 49ers.
Tremaine Townsend led the way for Northridge with 18 points and 14 rebounds before fouling out late in the second half. Jayme Miller added 15 points and Jonathan Heard had 13. The Matadors shot .509 for the game and hit 23-of-33 free throws, but had three players foul out of the contest. The Matadors, who took a 76-72 lead, got the ball back after a five second violation with 1:14 left, and had luck in their favor as they got the offensive rebound and two free throws following a missed three with 39.3 seconds left to make it 78-72.
There were a total of 55 fouls in the game and the two squads combined for 76 free throw attempts.
Morris connected on one-of-two free throws to make it 72-70 with 2:47 left, as Morris fouled out Rob Hayes, the second of three Matadors to foul out over the final four minutes, as The Beach made it a ballgame down the stretch after trailing by as many as 15.
A Plater three brought LBSU to within 68-61 with 5:33 remaining and two free throws by Brian Freeman brought the 49ers closer, at 70-65 with 4:20 left, before two free throws by Morris then made it 72-69 with 3:28 left.
Forced to play a controlled pace, the Matadors with the conference's second leading offense, led 32-24 at the break. CSUN shot .462 from the field, compared to a .389 clip by the 49ers. LBSU took a 7-4 lead on a Clady three with 13:27 remaining, while a Arturas Lazdauskas basket tied it at 9-9 with 11:47 remaining. A free throw by Plater then made it 15-11 with 8:34 left. The Matadors pulled away by more than a basket for the first time, forcing a 49er timeout at 5:05 after getting an easy layup at 20-17. A dunk by Jayme Miller then made it 22-17 with 3:55 remaining.
The 49ers next travel to New Mexico State for a Brackbuster Game on Saturday at 6 p.m. Pacific.
