San Jose State Follows Plan and Upsets Long Beach, 66-65

It was a perfect game plan, and San Jose State followed it perfectly for a 66-65 upset of Cal State Long Beach Saturday night.

“We wanted to be patient, execute our offense and get open shots,” said guard Terry Cannon, who scored 22 points, including two free throws with 14 seconds left that preserved the victory before 1,889 in the university gym.

“We knew our only hope was to nail those shots,” Cannon added as his teammates and Coach Stan Morrison celebrated only their fifth victory of the season.

San Jose forward Charles Terrell made eight of 11 shots, including four in a row in the second half.

The Spartans’ strategy of running down the 45-second shot clock was what Long Beach Coach Seth Greenberg had expected.

“They made us defend for long periods of time, then we couldn’t contain the dribblers,” Greenberg said. “They drove the lane whenever they wanted to.”

Long Beach had its two-game winning streak stopped and fell to 7-10 overall and 3-5 in the Big West. San Jose is 5-13 and 3-6.

The lead seesawed most of the game and the last tie was 60-60 with 1:35 left.

Terrell then slashed hard to his right and pulled up for a jumper to make it 62-60. Long Beach’s Lucious Harris missed a shot in the lane with 34 seconds left, and Philip Crump made two free throws eight seconds later.

Ronnie Winbush then made a three-point shot, which left the 49ers a point short as time ran out.

Kevin Cutler led Long Beach with 23 points and Harris, who made only three of 13 shots, was held to 12.

“That’s the best San Jose State has played in two years in terms of executing a game plan,” Morrison said.