Long Beach State University
22-10
UC Riverside
12-19
49ers advance to Big West Tournament championship game
3/11/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 11, 2011
CLICK TO WATCH VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS - SEMIFINALS VS. UC RIVERSIDE
ANAHEIM, Calif. - Long Beach State secured its second consecutive spot in the 2011 am pm Big West Tournament championship game as the 49ers defeated UC Riverside, 74-63, Friday evening at the Honda Center.
Larry Anderson scored a game-high 21 points and senior Greg Plater added 17 points with five 3-point field goals to lead Long Beach State as it will play the winner of tonight's Cal State Northridge/UC Santa Barbara matchup tomorrow at 5 p.m. with the winner advancing to the NCAA Tournament. The championship game will be shown live on ESPN2.
Behind a loud and raucous crowd of 49er faithful, No. 1 seed Long Beach State (22-10) roared out to a 15-0 start with four of its five starters scoring. In contrast, UC Riverside began the game 0-for-7 from the field and did not score a point in the game's first five minutes.
UC Riverside (12-19) bounced back with an 8-0 run of its own after a dunk by Phil Martin cut the lead to 15-8 at the 14:10 mark. Martin dunked emphatically and held on the rim which warranted him a technical foul.
Long Beach State's Casper Ware (16 points) made the technical foul shot and Plater followed with back-to-back 3-pointers to extend the lead to 22-10. The lead grew to 26-11 for the 49ers before the Highlanders fought back with a 7-0 run to cut the deficit to eight at 26-18.
Plater, who joined the LBSU 1,000-point club during the game, connected on three 3-point field goals in the first half to lead the 49ers in scoring with 11 points. T.J. Robinson also scored 11 and Anderson added 10 points, including a 3-point shot from the right wing with one second left to close out the first half for a 40-28 49er advantage.
Javon Borum connected on four of six three-pointers to lead the Highlanders with 13 first-half points.
In a first-half that seemed to favor Long Beach State statistically, both teams converted on identical 11-of-26 shooting but the 49ers made 14 free throws to only one of Riverside for the 12-point halftime lead.
The second half was more of the same in the early going with Long Beach State imposing its will on the seventh-seeded Highlanders, who had upset No. 2 Cal Poly last evening. The 49ers opened up a 56-36 lead but UCR refused to go away coming back to within eight at 59-51 after a 15-3 run highlighted by Tyquan Brown who scored nine points.
Plater stepped up again and nailed a 3-point shot right from the right baseline corner in front of his home bench to stop the rally and give Long Beach State some breathing room at 62-51 with 4:57 remaining.
After two free throws by Anderson made it 64-51, UC Riverside again made a final push with a 7-0 run to cut the lead to 64-58, the closest for the Highlanders since trailing 6-0.
In need of another clutch shot, Ware, the Big West Conference player of the year, did just that knocking down a three-pointer from the left baseline corner with 1:52 left and made two subsequent free throws to get the lead back to nine at 69-60.
Free throws down the stretch by Ware and Anderson helped Long Beach State hold off a determined Riverside squad and earn the 49ers their 22nd win of the season.
Robinson added 13 points and grabbed 9 rebounds for the 49ers. Martin scored 14 points for UCR while Borum did not score in the second half for the Highlanders.
The 49ers shot 9-for-17 from three-point range (52.9 percent) and converted 25-of-36 free throws in the contest.
Long Beach State has won 11 straight games, 17 of 19, and will be looking for its first Big West championship (fifth overall) and NCAA bid (eighth overall) since the 2007 season.
