Long Beach Surprises New Mexico St., 72-56

The prospects of breaking a shooting slump did not appear good for Cal State Long Beach, which had to face a hot New Mexico State team and its tough matchup zone defense Monday night.

But the 49ers shot 50.9% from the field and got a triple-double from guard Tyrone Mitchell in winning the Big West Conference game, 72-56, before a crowd of 1,998 in the university gym.

They shot that well by following their game plan: Move the ball around, get it inside and make the easy baskets.

Lately, Long Beach had not even been making the easy ones. Last week the 49ers shot 31% in barely defeating UC Irvine and improved to only 39% in a loss at UC Santa Barbara.

But that changed dramatically against the first-place Aggies, who had won 12 consecutive games. Not only did the 49ers, 11-3 overall and 4-2 in the conference, shoot better, but for the first time in four games they weren’t outrebounded.

Mitchell had 11 rebounds, 11 points and 11 assists.

“A triple-double for a college player, I can’t believe it,” Long Beach Coach Joe Harrington said.

It was the first triple-double accomplished against New Mexico State.

Forward Kevin Cutler led the 49ers with 17 points. He made seven of 11 shots to break a five-of-21 slump.

Long Beach, 7-0 at home, also got a big lift from Frankie Edwards, who got a rare start at center and responded with 11 rebounds, 10 points and two blocked shots.

“We didn’t play well,” New Mexico State Coach Neil McCarthy said. “They outplayed us and played harder than we did.”

New Mexico State (14-2, 5-1) didn’t offer a serious challenge in the second half.

“We have been poor at attacking zones,” Harrington said. “Yesterday and today we worked on that.”