O’Kelley’s Shot Lets Long Beach Roll On

When the run started, Terrance O’Kelley remained calm.

As the crowd roared, O’Kelley stayed cool.

And when the chaos reached its zenith, O’Kelley completed his ascent to hero with the game-winning shot in Long Beach State’s 65-63 Big West Conference victory over Pacific on Thursday night in front of 3,314 at the Spanos Center.

O’Kelley, a fifth-year senior forward, made a 12-foot shot along the left baseline with 22 seconds to play to give the second-place 49ers (12-6, 8-3) their fifth consecutive victory and their first at Pacific since they won, 80-75, during the 1989-90 season--the year before Seth Greenberg became coach.

“I picked up and dribbled once so I could get a better chance to shoot it,” said O’Kelley, who finished with 10 points on five-of-six shooting and made several timely plays.

“I didn’t know how much was up there (on the clock), so I put it up. Luckily, it went in for us.”

Yes, especially since the 49ers squandered a 15-point second-half lead. O’Kelley put Long Beach ahead, 54-39, with 11:37 to go.

The winning shot actually came on a broken play, as Tiger forward Charles Jones slapped the ball away from starting point guard Tye Mays, who was attempting to pass to O’Kelley. However, O’Kelley grabbed the loose ball, dribbled once and let go a high-arching shot over Pacific forward Marzell Clayton.

“He usually makes that shot in practice,” Mays said. “I was like, ‘Yeah, Terrance, take it to the baseline.’ ”

Pacific (11-7, 6-5), though, still had a shot--two to be exact.

Tiger Coach Bob Thomason opted not to call timeout and Mark Boelter, a skilled long-range shooter, tried to win the game with a three-point shot with only three seconds showing on the clock. He missed, but guard Corey Anders grabbed the rebound and shot with one second left. Anders also missed, but nevertheless he stopped Greenberg’s breathing for a few moments.

“Well, I got my two goals done,” Greenberg said. “I lasted all 40 minutes and we won despite everything.”

Pacific cut into the 49ers’ lead by going to a box-and-one defense with about four minutes left to try to slow down hot-shooting guard Rasul Salahuddin, who scored a career-high 20 points on eight-of-11 shooting. Salahuddin, a 30% three-point shooter, made four of five three-pointers against the Tigers after hitting four of four three-pointers in Long Beach’s 77-70 victory over Pacific on Jan. 16 at the Pyramid.

The strategy worked, as the Tigers rallied behind forward Charles Jones, who scored a game-high 25 points. Jones’ two free throws tied the score, 63-63, with 48 seconds left.

“We worked this weekend on box-and-one, and we thought we would use it,” Thomason said. “I kind of wished we would have used it a little earlier.”

Center Joe McNaull continued his strong play for Long Beach. The conference player of the week last week, McNaull had 15 points and 10 rebounds.

The shooting of Salahuddin helped Long Beach lead, 37-27, at halftime. Salahuddin connected on three of four three-pointers. His first three-pointer capped the 49ers’ 9-2 game-opening run.

Pacific tied the score, 19-19, with 9:10 to play. But Long Beach shut down the Tigers over the next 3:30, enabling it to pull away.

A three-pointer by Mays about five minutes remaining gave Long Beach its biggest lead to that point, 31-19. The 49ers shot 53.8%--its highest first-half percentage this season. Long Beach was equally strong on defense, holding the Tigers to 37% from the field.