Long Beach State Traps Beavers : College basketball: Oregon State cannot capitalize on 25 turnovers by 49ers, who win, 65-54.

It wasn’t too pretty, but Long Beach State did not need to paint a Picasso to handle Oregon State Saturday.

The 49ers, who committed 25 turnovers and got little done with their offense, used an aggressive trapping zone defense to earn a 65-54 nonconference victory at Oregon State.

It was the third consecutive victory for Long Beach (3-2), which got a game-high 19 points and seven rebounds from James Cotton. It was also a boost for the Big West Conference. Oregon State (1-3), predicted to finish last in the Pacific 10 Conference, got its lone victory a week ago against Big West member UC Irvine.

“We needed to win for our conference,” Long Beach Coach Seth Greenberg said. “And we needed a road win. This gives us some nice momentum.”

It might have done that, but the game also highlighted some weaknesses in the 49er offense.

When Jeff Riggs made two free throws with 13:02 remaining in the first half, it gave Oregon State a 16-7 lead. Long Beach already had turned the ball over five times, and was one of eight from the field.

Sophomore forward Sonny Benjamin made a three-pointer and, after another Long Beach turnover, a basket by freshman Sasa Petrovic put the Beavers ahead, 21-9.

The trapping defense came to life in the next five minutes. Cotton, Juaquin Hawkins and Rasul Salahuddin had hands in every passing lane.

Cotton made two free throws to tie it, 27-27, and the 49ers quickly forced four turnovers to take a 34-31 lead by halftime.

But the Beavers didn’t go away, and neither did Long Beach’s scoring droughts. The 49ers went scoreless for the first five minutes of the second half. But Oregon State had only a three-pointer.

Bad sign for the Beavers, because the Long Beach defense began seeing green again. Eric Brown scored twice off turnovers and Marcus Johnson got a layup off a pass from Salahuddin to put Long Beach ahead to stay.

When Cotton made a three-pointer with 9:28 remaining, the 49ers led, 50-42.

“When I don’t shoot well, I have to do other things,” said Cotton, who had four steals and three assists. “This was a very big road win for us. They’d just beat Irvine, and we wanted to show that the Big West is good.”

Hawkins finished with six points. Salahuddin, who had 11 points and six steals, hit two long jumpers to put Long Beach ahead, 60-52, with 1:31 remaining.

“Those were big shots,” Cotton said. “Any player on this team can step up.”

Which is precisely what Greenberg is looking for after five tough games and a difficult matchup looming against Miami of Ohio next Saturday at Las Vegas.

“It’s tough to replace three [graduated] seniors with sophomores,” Greenberg said. “But we’re playing hard. We could have backed away after we got down here early, but we came back. I like our progress. We just need to get better on offense.”