Long Beach Takes a Major Step Up : Basketball: 49ers shake off uninspired first half to defeat Fullerton, 73-57, and tie for Big West lead.

Long Beach State admittedly didn’t play its most inspired game of the season, which is somewhat curious considering first place in the Big West Conference was at stake.

However, even lackluster efforts are more than enough these days against Cal State Fullerton, which was routed by the 49ers, 73-57, Thursday night in front of 4,442 at the Pyramid.

The victory was the 49ers’ ninth in a row in the conference, and enabled Long Beach (16-7, 12-3 in the Big West) to move into a tie with idle Utah State for first place.

“When you’re playing for a championship, you have to play harder than we did in the first half,” Long Beach Coach Seth Greenberg said. “I mean, how many times in the last 18 years has a Long Beach team had a chance to play for a championship?”

The answer: not many. Which eventually sank in with the players.

“I thought we shared the ball better and played harder in the second half,” Greenberg said. “We’re a fun team to watch when we’re playing well.”

The 49ers righted themselves, with a little prodding from Greenberg, and took control after leading only 33-27 at halftime. As usual, center Joe McNaull was a key to the 49ers’ success.

McNaull scored a game-high 19 points as Long Beach’s lead continued to grow. The 49ers twice led by as many as 19 points.

McNaull made eight of 13 shots from the field, which helped offset an off night by Terrance O’Kelley, who was only three of 11 from the field.

“For the most part, I thought we were fairly successful against their inside game but we did lose by (16) points,” Titan Coach Bob Hawking said. “Long Beach has the talent and they are well coached.”

True, so what was the 49ers’ story in the first half?

“Coach told us that they’re a good team, but I guess we just looked at their record,” said guard Rasul Salahuddin, who had 10 points and five assists. “We were sluggish at first, but then we got going.”

Long Beach’s ascent to the top of the conference is especially satisfying to McNaull, who transferred from San Diego State for one reason: to win.

“This feels great,” McNaull said. “We’re in a great position now. We just have to keep it going.”

Most of McNaull’s teammates have not walked as difficult a road, but first place is no less satisfying to them.

“At the beginning of the season, a lot of people picked us fourth,” said reserve guard Eric Brown, who scored nine points. “But with the talent we have on this team, I knew it was only a matter of time before we came around.”

And playing the woeful Titans (7-17, 5-11) didn’t hurt.

Fullerton shot 40.7% from the field compared to 50.9% by Long Beach. Poor shooting, though, was only one of many problems. The biggest being the lack of production from standout forward Winston Peterson.

McNaull, O’Kelley and Mike Atkinson combined to limit Peterson to seven points, on three-of-nine shooting, and only four rebounds. Peterson began the game averaging a team-high 18.6 points and 8.6 rebounds.

“I thought Joe, Mike and Terrance did a terrific job on Peterson,” Greenberg said. “That’s as well as we’ve ever played him.”

Fullerton simply doesn’t have enough talent to stay with anyone in the conference if Peterson is slowed, so it’s surprising the Titans hung around as long as they did.

What’s more, they might have made a game of it down the stretch if guard Chris Dade had not disappeared.

Dade led Fullerton with 15 points, but he scored 13 of them in the first half while making three of four three-pointers. He attempted only one after halftime, in large part because of the defense of Salahuddin.

Guard James French had 13 points and five assists for the Titans. Guard Tye Mays scored 11 for the 49ers.