Long Beach Dominates on Defense

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 (1-3).

It was the third consecutive victory for Long Beach (3-2), which got a game-high 19 points and seven rebounds from James Cotton.

“We needed to win for our conference,” Long Beach Coach Seth Greenberg said of the Big West. “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 as they committed six early turnovers while falling behind, 21-9.

“Offensively, we were atrocious,” Greenberg said. “Our defense kind of hit a yellow light there early in the first half. Our offense saw red all game.”

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

Long Beach State, however, took control with its defense in the second half behind Juaquin Hawkins (seven steals) and Rasul Salahuddin (11 points and six steals).

Notes

Long Beach State’s Big West Conference men’s and women’s openers against UC Santa Barbara have been moved from Jan. 2 to Jan. 3 because of college football’s national championship game between Nebraska and Florida in the Fiesta Bowl.