Nevada Finally Finds a Way Against 49ers

Defeating Long Beach State isn’t all Nevada’s players think about. But they do devote a good amount of time--and with good reason.

No matter where or when the Wolf Pack and 49ers meet, the 49ers leave pleased. The 49ers defeated the Wolf Pack three times last season and in seven consecutive meetings going into Saturday night’s game at the Pyramid.

Finally, Nevada left smiling. Its 79-75 Big West Conference victory over Long Beach, in front of 4,267, provided an unbelievable feeling, players said. And unusual, too.

“Oh, man does this feel good,” said Wolf Pack guard Brian Green, who scored a game-high 23 points.

“They beat us three times last year. We wanted to come down here and get one on their court. We did it, we finally did it.”

The Wolf Pack got it done by dominating the 49ers in first-half offensive rebounding and beating their seemingly uninspired counterparts to the basket at will. The combination was too much to overcome, Long Beach Coach Seth Greenberg said.

The defeat adds to an already hard week for Greenberg, whose father died of cancer last Sunday. Also, Greenberg suspended center/forward Marcus Johnson indefinitely on Friday for a violation of team policy.

“We just didn’t play,” said Greenberg, whose team dropped to 8-6, 3-2 in the Big West.

“The game was more important to them than it was to us. We talked about the fact we had beaten them three times last year, but that didn’t seem to matter to us.

“You don’t want [to win] if you get beat off the boards and beat off the dribble like we did.”

Nevada is rolling after starting the conference season 0-2. Nevada (11-5, 4-2) is tied for first place with UC Irvine. Nevada defeated UC Santa Barbara, 72-64, Thursday.

“We set a goal to come down here and go back home with two victories, and we took care of business,” Green said. “This is a great win for us, but the main thing is that it’s a conference win.

“I think Long Beach is the best team in the conference, and this puts us right there with them.”

Green scorched Long Beach for 26 points in last season’s Big West tournament title game that Long Beach won in overtime, 76-69. This time, though, he was determined not to have his effort wasted. His steal and dunk with 3 minutes 17 seconds remaining in the game gave Nevada a 74-67 lead.

Long Beach had its chances down the stretch, but missed several free throws in the clutch. Guard James Cotton--the Big West’s leading scorer--fouled out with 2:12 left and Long Beach trailing, 76-70. That completed a rotten evening for Cotton, who scored only 12 points. Reserve guard Eric Brown led Long Beach with 16.

“I just can’t believe this,” Cotton said repeatedly. “This whole game . . . it was just very frustrating.”

Long Beach did a pretty good job on Green in the first half. He scored 15 points but made only seven shots in 17 attempts and missed five of six three-point shots.

Yet Nevada led at halftime, 39-35. This is just a guess, but a 13-1 offensive-rebound advantage probably helped Nevada a little. Nevada finished the game with 22 offensive rebounds and Long Beach had 17.

However, Nevada converted more of its rebounds into points, a fact not lost on Greenberg.

“I don’t how many put-backs they got,” Greenberg said, “but it was a lot.”