Long Beach Defeats Pacific to Qualify for Tournament

Cal State Long Beach, which struggled all season after being picked to finish third in the Big West Conference, made the league tournament Saturday night, but only as the eighth and last seeded team.

The 49ers defeated Pacific, 84-78, in the Long Beach gym to finish the regular season 11-16 overall and 7-11 in the Big West, tying Cal State Fullerton and Fresno State for sixth place.

But Fullerton won the sixth spot because it was the only one of the three teams to defeat New Mexico State. And Fresno got the seventh spot because it beat Long Beach twice.

Thus the 49ers have to play top-ranked Nevada Las Vegas, whom they have already lost to by 51 and 47 points, in the quarterfinals of the tournament Friday night in the Long Beach Arena.

Had the 49ers shot free throws all season like they did Saturday night, they would have avoided having to play UNLV right away. They made 25 of 31 free throws for 80.6%, well above their usual 63%.

Long Beach kept losing leads against the third-place Tigers (13-14, 9-9) but made eight consecutive foul shots in the last three minutes.

With six seconds left on the shot clock and 20 left in the game, Lucious Harris made a shot while falling in the lane to put Long Beach ahead, 80-76.

Dell Demps cut it to 80-78 with 11 seconds left, but Bobby Sears and Harris each made two free throws to secure the victory.

Harris and Kevin Cutler each scored 24 points for the 49ers.