CS Long Beach Plays Defense in Second Half, Beats Irvine

Cal State Long Beach made it hard for UC Irvine’s Ricky Butler to get the basketball inside Thursday, and the 49ers made it hard for Irvine’s Jeff Herdman to shoot from outside.

That kind of defense kept Irvine’s top scorers in check, limiting the Anteaters’ to seven second-half field goals and a season-low 60 points in Long Beach’s 72-60 Big West Conference victory before 1,412 in the Bren Center.

Long Beach trailed, 35-28, at halftime.

Butler, who averages 18 points, was held to three in the second half--largely because of Kevin Cutler’s defense--and finished with 12. He had only seven shots, making five of them.

Herdman, who was hounded by Troy Joseph, scored 17 points, but was held to two of nine shots from three-point range. He averages four three-pointers a game, second-best among Division I players.

“I’m really pleased with the way we responded in the second half,” 49er Coach Seth Greenberg said.

Long Beach, 8-11 overall and 4-6 in the conference, used a 15-2 run at the outset of the second half to pull ahead. When Irvine threatened to come back, the 49ers squelched the bid with a 6-0 run, forcing repeated turnovers off its pressure defense.

Lucious Harris scored 22 points for the 49ers and Cutler added 14.

Irvine is 8-16, 3-9.