CS Long Beach Falters at Pacific, 71-61

Cal State Long Beach, perhaps looking ahead to next week’s Big West Conference tournament, had its poorest outing in nearly two months Thursday night and fell into third place in the tournament seeding race with one game remaining.

In losing its Big West Conference game, 71-61, to University of the Pacific, the 49ers looked like anything but the team that brought a four-game winning streak into Spanos Center. Long Beach (16-10, 10-7) shot 34.8% and was outrebounded, 30-21, on the defensive backboards.

“The kids just didn’t play. They just flat out didn’t play,” Long Beach Coach Seth Greenberg said.

Playing before 2,509, the Tigers (12-14, 8-9) won for the fourth consecutive time at home. Pacific held a 22-point second-half lead before allowing the 49ers to rally in the final eight minutes. Long Beach got within 61-58 with 2:25 to go on the strength of a 22-9 run. But Pacific got four free throws each down the stretch by guards Dell Demps and Tony Amundsen, who finished with a game-high 27 points.

Long Beach made only eight of 31 shots in the first half, including one of 13 during a 10-minute stretch in which Pacific turned a one-point deficit into a 16-point advantage.

Long Beach took its only lead, 10-9, on a basket by center Chris Tower with 4:12 gone. But then a three-point shot by Amundsen started Pacific on a 21-4 run toward victory.