Long Beach Hits Long, Short in Beating Irvine
UC Irvine, employing a stand-around offense and watch-them-run-and-dunk defense, ended the regular season with the weakest of whimpers Saturday night in a 91-72 defeat to Long Beach State before 2,849 at the Bren Center.
The first time these teams met, it took two overtimes to decide a winner. This one was over long before halftime.
Long Beach (17-9, 11-7) made five of its first six three-point shots. Of the 49ers’ first 16 two-point baskets, 15 were either layups or dunks against the porous defense of Irvine (7-19, 4-14).
The 49ers led, 46-22, at halftime and it was 55-23 after 3 1/2 minutes of the second half.
Long Beach will finish in either a three- or four-way tie for second in the conference, depending on the outcome of today’s Nevada Las Vegas-Pacific game, and will be third seeded in the Big West tournament at Las Vegas.
Irvine is 10th-seeded and will play No. 7 Santa Barbara.
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