CS Fullerton Has Little Trouble in Long Beach

The public address announcer at the Long Beach Arena kept reminding Cal State Long Beach fans that they could meet 49er basketball Coach Ron Palmer at a local restaurant after Saturday’s game.

But if things keep going the way they have been for the 49ers, they’ll be able to hold similar gatherings at a table for two.

Long Beach (2-7) lost its Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. opener to Cal State Fullerton, 82-71, Saturday before 1,295, about half of them Titan fans.

The 49ers’ once-proud and thriving basketball program has been in a tailspin the last few seasons. In 1979, a crowd of 10,737 crammed this facility and saw the Titans beat Long Beach in overtime.

Palmer is hardly at fault, of course. He is in his first year, and the 49ers were a combined 34-51 over the three previous seasons. But the first few minutes of Saturday’s game gave an indication why things don’t appear to be getting much better.

The 49ers, shooting a dismal 42% from the field so far this season, were worse than that (33%) in the first half Saturday. They also made 11 turnovers, committed 19 fouls and missed almost half of their free-throw attempts.

The Titans, however, were playing uninspired basketball themselves in the early going, and it wasn’t until they outscored Long Beach, 14-0, midway through the second half that they had the game under control.

Fullerton (5-6) did manage a season-high point total and evened its conference record at 1-1. The Titans rebounded from a sloppy first half, raced past the 49er press and shot 61% from the floor in the second half.

“Coach (George McQuarn) gave us a very degrading halftime speech,” Fullerton forward Tony Neal said. “We took Long Beach too lightly. We have a habit of doing that.”

The way the Titans have been playing this season, they can’t afford to take anyone lightly. “Our kids came in flat,” McQuarn said. “I don’t know if it was the (conference-opening) loss at New Mexico State Thursday or the afternoon game today, but we played with no emotion in the first half.”

Kevin Henderson, who has been starting at shooting guard, was moved to point guard by McQuarn (replacing freshman Eugene Jackson) and he responded with 19 points, hitting 7 of 9 from the floor and 5 of 6 free throws.

Neal, who had only four first-half points, finished strong (18 points and 9 rebounds), while Kerry Boagni, a 6-8 transfer from Kansas, scored 16 points.

“Boagni’s play was encouraging,” McQuarn said. “Tony and Kevin can’t do all the scoring themselves.”

Fullerton led by as many as 20 points, but the 49ers made 5 of 10 three-pointers late in the game to keep the score respectable. Freshman guard Jon Hansen had two of them and finished with 22 points. Senior forward Darryl Adams added 13 points and nine rebounds.

“I’ve said before that maybe we ought to operate from about 20 feet (the three-point line is 19 feet 9 inches),” Palmer said. “But we want to go inside just like everybody else.