Long Beach State Still Has Fullerton’s Number

Those who root for the underdog had two good reasons to show up for Thursday’s Big West Conference men’s basketball game between Cal State Fullerton and Long Beach State. Neither team has played to its potential and both were coming off huge conference losses last week, which further buried them in the conference basement.

Long Beach broke one streak but continued another for the Titans, pulling away for a 77-60 victory before 1,031 at Fullerton. The 49ers, earning their first road victory in 10 tries this season, received a career-high 30 points from senior forward Travis Reed and defeated Fullerton for the sixth consecutive time. The victory gave Long Beach a two-game lead over the last-place Titans for the final qualifying spot for next month’s conference tournament.

“Fullerton is a lot better team than they showed tonight,” said Reed, who played his freshman and sophomore seasons at UCLA. “They’ve only been suiting up eight or nine guys and they kind of ran out of gas at the end.”

Fullerton (4-15, 1-9), winless in 11 road games, was without reserve forward Josh Fischer, who underwent exploratory surgery in October to examine an irregular heartbeat and missed his fifth consecutive game because of the recurring condition.

Long Beach (7-14, 3-7) made 15 of its first 19 field-goal attempts and shot 68% from the floor in the first half, but only led by six at the break. The 49ers kept Fullerton close with 11 first-half turnovers, and Fullerton’s Pape Sow made six of nine shots in the opening half and scored 17 of his team-high 27 points. Reed, who began the game second on the 49ers’ all-time career field goal list (.554), made nine of 11 first-half shots and scored 18 points. Reed made 13 of 16 shots overall, surpassing his previous career high of 26 points, scored last season against Cal State Fullerton.

Fullerton cut the lead to 44-42 on Sow’s dunk with just under 14 minutes left, but Long Beach went on a 9-0 run and the Titans never got closer than seven.

Dan Arritt

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UC Irvine 72, UC Riverside 64--Anteater senior guard Jerry Green had two points with about 10 minutes left in the first half at UC Riverside.

He quickly remedied that with nine more in the next 71/2 minutes.

Green proceeded to tie the school’s career-scoring record and contributed mightily to the Anteaters’ rally past the Highlanders before 1,163.

Irvine used a 17-5 run in the final 6:25 to overcome a 59-55 deficit.

Green finished with 20 points, giving him 1,778 career points. He is tied with Riverside assistant coach Tod Murphy, an Irvine graduate who earned the same total from from 1982-86.

“I tied it and he shook my hand,” Green said. “He knows I’m probably going to break it. He’s a great guy.”

Green’s next chance to pass Murphy will come Saturday at Cal State Fullerton.

Until then, he and the Anteaters (15-6, 8-2) are just happy to have finally gotten past Riverside (6-12, 3-7).

“It’s a good accomplishment,” Green said. “But I’m not worried about that right now.”

The Anteaters were more concerned with staying atop the Big West standings, something they did thanks to the victory and second-place Cal State Northridge’s 74-58 loss to Pacific.

Lauren Peterson

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Pacific 74, Cal State Northridge 58--The Matadors (8-11, 7-3) fell out of a tie for the Big West lead as junior guard Demetrius Jackson scored 20 of his game-high 25 points in the first half to lead the Tigers (14-6, 6-4) at Stockton.

Markus Carr and Curtis Slaughter each scored 14 points for Northridge.

Pacific was in control after building a 38-21 halftime lead. Northridge cut a 48-28 Pacific lead to 49-35, but the Tigers sank three consecutive three-pointers to take their biggest lead at 58-35 midway through the half. Pacific made 11 of its 21 three-pointers.

Northridge got within 14 points four times afterward, but Pacific responded each time.

Associated Press