Long Beach Gets Past Fullerton

Before Cal State Long Beach’s 88-83 victory over Cal State Fullerton Saturday night, Coach Seth Greenberg had begun to wonder whether the 49ers would ever win a close game.

To end the frustration of losing four of the last five games by a total of seven points, Greenberg devised a simple plan.

“We stressed team togetherness, having fun and playing as hard as humanly possible. And that’s what won the game for us,” he said.

Accurate free-throw shooting also helped.

The 49ers had to make six consecutive foul shots in the last 31 seconds to clinch the victory before 1,896 in the university gym.

Long Beach came into the game shooting only 63% from the free-throw line but made 15 of 17 (88%) in the second half.

“It was a win we sorely needed,” said Greenberg, whose team beat Fullerton for the second time this season to improve to 9-13 overall and 5-8 in the Big West. Fullerton is 13-11 and 6-9.

A layup by Agee Ward brought Fullerton to within 82-81 with 40 seconds left.

But nine seconds later, Long Beach’s Bobby Sears made two free throws.

After a missed shot by Joe Small, Lucious Harris, who had a game-high 25 points, made two free throws with 21 seconds remaining.

But Small, who led the Titans with 21 points, made a jump shot to cut the lead to 86-83.

After Long Beach threw the ball away with seven seconds to play, Small tried a wild shot from three-point territory, but failed to draw a foul that would have given him three free throws.

“It’s seldom that a referee will give you a call on a desperation shot,” Fullerton Coach John Sneed said.

The 49ers got 12 points in the first half from Bryon Russell and 11 in the second half from Chris Tower.

“We were patient getting the ball inside,” Greenberg said. “And when we started to press in the second half, I thought that turned the game around.”