With Hatten Out, 49ers Come Up Short, 77-66

Cal State Long Beach lost its leading scorer in the first half Saturday night, then lost to UC Santa Barbara, 77-66.

Center John Hatten, who had been averaging more than 17 points in Big West Conference games, went out with a sprained ankle seven minutes before halftime and did not return. That left the 49ers with only one player--reserve center Marco Fleming--taller than 6 feet 5 inches.

Fleming had another good game, scoring 16 points, and guard Tyrone Mitchell scored 23. But that wasn’t enough on a night when forwards Mike Doyle and Eric McArthur had great performances, and reserve Lucius Davis scored an unexpected 12 points.

Doyle had 27 points and McArthur had 15 points and 12 rebounds. Both were responsible for a surge midway through the second half that broke open a tight game for good before a crowd of 5,914 at the Campus Events Center.

The Gauchos were ahead, 49-48, when Doyle made a 3-point play and McArthur followed with successive baskets for a 56-48 lead with 9:04 to play. Long Beach never got closer than 7 points after that.

The defeat hurt the chances of the 49ers, now 13-13 overall and 10-7 in the league, of finishing in second or third place. They dropped to fourth and were replaced in third by the Gauchos, 19-6 and 10-6.

Santa Barbara was in control much of the first half because of a 16-2 Doyle-sparked run that took them from a 9-6 deficit to a 22-11 lead.

But Mitchell and Fleming led the 49ers back, and they trailed only 34-32 at halftime.

“Fleming is very tough to guard,” Santa Barbara Coach Jerry Pimm said. “The way he was going I thought he might go for 30 points.”

With Mitchell continuing to take charge by driving into the lane and drawing fouls, the 49ers took two leads early in the second half and had the Gauchos tied at 46-46 until McArthur answered with a 3-point play.

“I was proud the way we hung in there, but we were at tremendous odds not having John Hatten in there,” Long Beach Coach Joe Harrington said. “We didn’t make the free throws we needed to to make the game close enough.”

The 49ers shot 11 of 22 from the free throw line, compared to 15 of 22 for the Gauchos. But Santa Barbara left no doubt of its sduperiority in shooting from the field--58.5% to 48% for the 49ers.

“Santa Barbara shot better from outside than I had anticipated,” Harrington said.

He was especially surprised by Davis, a freshman reserve forward who was averaging only four points a game but came through with four medium-range jumpers.