CS Long Beach Beats Fresno State

It took a long time, but Cal State Long Beach finally reached .500 Saturday night by defeating Fresno State, 59-51, before a sellout crowd of 1,908 at Long Beach.

“We’ve had to overcome a lot of injuries, before the season and now . . . it’s been a grind,” Coach Joe Harrington said after the 49ers improved to 11-11 overall--the first time they have been at .500 this season--and 8-5 in the Big West Conference. It was also their third consecutive victory.

The 49ers won the game at the free-throw line. They made only two field goals in the last 11 minutes but made 16 of 22 from the line during that time.

“Getting to the one-and-one with 11 minutes to go made a big difference for us,” Harrington said.

The 49ers, who have been practicing free-throw shooting, made 73% from the line in the second half.

“We’ve been coming in at night and a couple of mornings at 6:30, so we’ve been shooting a lot more free throws,” Harrington said.

Guard Tyrone Mitchell, who led the 49ers with 12 points, made seven of the free throws that kept Fresno State (11-10 and 6-6) at a safe distance.

Long Beach, which lost, 56-55, at Fresno earlier in the season, improved from a 26-20 halftime lead to a 45-34 lead with 8:59 left.

But Jervis Cole, who led Fresno with 15 points, made a three-point play to start a 7-0 spurt that got the Bulldogs to within 45-41 at 5:33.

But in the next three minutes the 49ers scored five free throws--two by Marco Fleming and three by Mitchell--and got a rebound basket from Rudy Harvey to make it 52-41. Fresno never got closer than nine points the rest of the way.

The 49ers’ press forced 16 Fresno turnovers, and Long Beach outrebounded the taller Bulldogs, 31-29.

All of the 49ers’ top nine players scored. John Hatten had 10 points, Harvey had nine and Fleming scored eight.