Faulkner, Jones Lead CS Long Beach to Victory Over Drexel in Tournament

PHILADELPHIA — Darrell Faulkner and Brian Jones each scored 18 points as Cal State Long Beach rallied to defeat Drexel, 92-84, in the Josten’s basketball tournament Friday night.

Long Beach (2-3) will meet La Salle for the championship tonight. The Explorers (4-1) beat Pennsylvania, 77-61, in the second game. The Quakers (2-2) will play Drexel (0-4) for third place.

Drexel wasted a 33-point contribution by John Rankin, who fouled out with 2:24 left.

Long Beach trailed, 79-76, when Drexel’s Todd Lehmann hit a jumper with 3:35 left. Rudy Harvey’s layup started a 10-point run for the 49ers, and they took an 86-79 advantage on 2 free throws by Faulkner with 30 seconds remaining.

Long Beach led at halftime, 49-41, and was up by 11 with 13 minutes to go. But Drexel went on a 16-5 spurt, and a jumper by Clarence Armstrong tied it, 72-72, with 8:47 left.

Marco Fleming had 15 points, Rolf Jacobs 14, John Hatten 12 and Harvey 11 for Long Beach, which had only 9 players and used 8.

Lionel Simmons scored 32 points and had 9 rebounds to help La Salle reach the championship game.

La Salle led, 24-8, midway through the first half, and held a 39-28 advantage at halftime.

Penn started the second half with a 19-9 spurt and closed to 48-47 on a 3-point play by Jerry Simon with 11:09 left in the game.

La Salle, leading 54-51 with 7:55 remaining, scored 7 consecutive points, including 5 from reserve forward Bobby Johnson. Penn never came within 10 after that.

Jack Hurd had 18 points for LaSalle.