CS Long Beach Pulls Away from Charlotte, 83-73

Cal State Long Beach’s basketball team showed Monday night that it is still adept at defeating teams who are not in the Big West Conference.

The 49ers, who have been struggling in the Big West with a 6-6 record, improved their nonconference record to 8-1 with an 83-73 victory over North Carolina Charlotte before a crowd of 2,194 at the Long Beach Arena.

The 49ers, who had won only three of their last eight games, got 18 points from Troy Joseph, who made the plays that broke open a tight game in the second half.

Long Beach was ahead by only 69-66 when Joseph drove the baseline for a layup with 4:42 left. Fouled on the play, he made the free throw to put the 49ers ahead, 72-66.

Joseph then passed to Rudy Harvey, who scored inside to make it 74-66. Tyrone Mitchell sank a three-point shot with 2:09 left to virtually assure the victory.

The 49ers, who had shot only 27% from the field in a loss to UC Santa Barbara last week, shot 50% against Charlotte. They had shot 50% or better only once in the last six games.

“We ran our offense much better than we have in a long time,” said Long Beach Coach Joe Harrington. “And our free-throw shooting was excellent for a change.”

The 49ers shot 74% from the line, but were 16 for 20 in the first half.

Mitchell had 17 points for the 49ers.

Henry Williams scored 27 for Charlotte (11-10).

The 49ers got off to a rare good shooting start. They shot 57.7% from the field in the first half.

Long Beach led by from four to eight points through most of the first half, but couldn’t stop Charlotte, which shot even better (58.8%). Charlotte went to the line only five times in the first 20 minutes, but it was 20 of 34 from the field and got 17 points from Williams.

The 49ers held a 48-47 halftime lead, but Charlotte shot only 30% in the second half.