Harris Doesn’t Start, Helps Long Beach Finish Utah State

Cal State Long Beach Coach Seth Greenberg, who has juggled his starting lineup all season, was forced to come up with another one Thursday night, and for the first time it didn’t include Lucious Harris.

But Harris came off the bench to score 24 points and the 49ers defeated Utah State, 89-78, in a Big West Conference game before 1,727 in the university gym.

Harris, the team’s leading scorer, didn’t start because he had back pains and because Greenberg felt Bobby Sears deserved to start at point guard.

Greenberg also started 6-foot-10 sophomore Chris Tower (14 points, nine rebounds) at center because Adam Henderson was sick.

“He was terrific,” Greenberg said. “He defends, he’s a good scorer and he’s just gaining confidence because he hasn’t played a lot in a year and a half.”

The victory was the sixth in a row at home for the 49ers (7-9 overall, 3-4 in the Big West), who have a two-game win streak for only the second time this season.

“That was the best game we’ve played,” Greenberg said.

Long Beach dominated under the basket. Bryon Russell had 13 points and nine rebounds, and Kevin Cutler had 13 points and eight rebounds.

“It seemed it didn’t matter who we put in there on post defense,” Utah State Coach Kohn Smith said. “They were still able to score pretty easily us inside.”

Leading 42-40 after Utah State got the first basket of the second half, the 49ers pulled away to a 51-42 lead. They went on a 10-0 run after the lead was cut to 56-50.

Sears had 10 points and eight assists for Long Beach.

Kendall Youngblood and Jay Goodman each scored 19 points for the Aggies (7-9, 4-3).