PCAA Roundup : New Mexico St. Too Much for Long Beach in 2nd Half

New Mexico State hit Cal State Long Beach with a barrage of second-half layups and dunks and defeated the 49ers, 85-79, Saturday night at the Long Beach Arena.

Guard Gilbert Wilburn--with the layups--and center Andre Patterson--with the dunks--combined for 35 points in the second half.

The Aggies, who held only a 36-35 halftime lead, outscored the 49ers, 20-6, early in the second half to take a commanding 62-45 lead. Wilburn scored 13 points during a six-minute span to open the half.

Wilburn, a Carson native who transferred to New Mexico State from Wichita State, finished with 29 points and six assists. He has averaged 23 points in the six games he has played since becoming eligible.

Patterson finished with 20 points and 12 rebounds.

Sharp passing and strong offensive rebounding led to many of New Mexico State’s close-range shots. It also helped the Aggies to a 58.3 shooting percentage.

“They had too many second and third efforts,” Long Beach Coach Ron Palmer said. “Our effort wasn’t there. We didn’t play hard enough to win.”

The 49ers came back to make the score respectable, led by reserve guard Cardell Taylor, who scored 11 points and had four assists in nine minutes.

Darryl Adams and Stafford Hamlin each scored 12 points for Long Beach, which shot only 40% from the field.

The victory raised New Mexico State’s record to 5-7 overall and 2-1 in the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. Long Beach fell to 2-9 and 0-3.

Las Vegas 70, Fresno State 58--Frank James scored 18 points and Richie Adams added 13 to lead the University of Nevada-Las Vegas to victory over Fresno State at Las Vegas.

The Rebels, 10-2, are 4-0 in league play. Fresno State fell to 6-5 and 3-4 in league play.

Mitch Arnold’s 19 points and Josh Kuipers’ 18 paced the Bulldogs.

In the first half, Arnold took on the Rebels. The Rebels held a 16-11 lead 10 minutes into the game with Arnold scoring all 11 for the Bulldogs. Only Kuipers, Scott Barnes and Brian Salone were able to score field goals, yet the Bulldogs only trailed 30-27 at halftime.

UNLV found a way to stop Arnold, but Kuiper took over, hitting 14 points to give Fresno a 44-41 lead with 12 minutes to go.

But a three-pointer by Banks, followed by his field goal, put the Rebels out in front, 46-44. The Rebels then ran off 20 points to 11 for the Bulldogs over the next nine minutes.