Long Beach State University Athletics
Long Beach State University
13-12
Green Bay
21-8
Beach men fall to hot-shooting Green Bay
2/21/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 21, 2009
LONG BEACH, Calif. - Green Bay came to Long Beach with a reputation as being a great shooting team ranking third in the country in free throw shooting and ninth in 3-point shooting. The Phoenix didn't do anything to hurt that reputation on Saturday at the Walter Pyramid.
The Phoenix shot 56.4 percent from the floor, 59.1 percent from three and a perfect 11-of-11 from the free throw line en route to an 86-75 non-conference win.
Long Beach State (13-12) trailed by as many as 24 point midway through the second half, but The Beach didn't fold battling back to within 10 twice in the final five minutes. The 49ers freshman combination of Larry Anderson, Casper Ware and T.J. Robinson, along with sophomore sub Greg Plater sparked the run. The four combined to score 37 of Long Beach State's 39 second half points.
Anderson finished with a team-high 23 points, 14 in the second half, and nine rebounds. Ware added 15 points, six assists and six steals with nine of the points and all six steals coming after the break. Robinson had 15 points and five boards, while Plater added 12 points and three rebounds with nine points coming in the second half.
Green Bay (21-8) was led by Ryan Tillema who finished with a game-high 30 points.
Green Bay got out to an early lead making three 3-pointers, and three free throws on a foul on a 3-point shot, to take a 14-11 lead at the first media timeout. The Phoenix made 4-of-6 shots during that time and didn't miss a three. Long Beach State stayed close behind the play of Robinson. The Beach freshman had eight of the teams first 11 points. He didn't score again until making a free throw with 8:45 to play in the game.
The Phoenix kept the pressure on Long Beach State from long range into the next media timeout. Tillema canned all three of his 3-point attempts in the first 9:46, along with three free throws, to score 12 points. Green Bay made nine of its first 12 shots, including 6-of-7 from 3-point range, and built the lead to as many as 13 before Anderson scored and was fouled.
Tillema wasn't done. He canned three more 3-pointers and had a dunk in the next 4:45 to help the Phoenix to extend the lead to as many as 17. Green Bay made 13-of-20 shots in the first 13:39, while Long Beach State struggled making only 8-of-21 (38.1 percent). Green Bay was 8-of-12 from three at that point, while LBSU managed just 2-of-4.
Tillema wasn't the only Phoenix player to hurt the 49ers from long range. When Tillema went to the bench with two fouls, Mike Schachtner stepped up. He made all four of his shots, two from 3-point range, and a pair of free throws to help GB push the lead to 20, 48-48, with 3:39 to play in the half. Schachtner and Tillema combined to score 32 of Green Bay's first 48 points in the first 16:21. Schachtner finished with 16 points.
Long Beach State made a mini-run to close the half holding GB without a bucket for the final 3:14 and outscoring the Phoenix 6-0 to go into the break trailing by 16 after falling behind by 22. Green Bay finished the half making 18-of-29 shots (62.1 percent), 9-of-14 threes (64.3 percent) and all seven of its free throws.
Things didn't change in the second half. Green Bay came out of the break and made 5-of-7 shots, both its 3-pointers and both free throws to push the lead to 66-44. LBSU answered by making just 3-of-8 shots, while going 0-for-3 from three.
Green Bay kept the pressure on until Long Beach State went on a 25-11 run to finally cut it to 10 with 4:20 to play but The Beach couldn't get any closer.
