Behavior Is Great but Rout Is Greater

No incidents, no arguments--quick rout.

On-court behavior was the focus Saturday night as Long Beach State raced to its sixth consecutive Big West Conference victory, 73-57, over New Mexico State before 4,843 at the Pyramid. Long Beach’s streak began after it lost, 76-63, to New Mexico State on Jan. 22 at Las Cruces, N.M.

“We were embarrassed at their place the last time,” 49er forward Juaquin Hawkins said. “We all wanted to come out and make a statement. That’s what we did, and we want to keep doing that for the rest of the season.”

The first-place 49ers (14-7 overall and 9-3 in the conference) played without standout guard James Cotton. The Big West’s leading scorer with an average of 20.4 points, Cotton sat out the game because of a severe stomach problem, Long Beach officials said.

Rasul Salahuddin was among three players who scored at least 14 points for Long Beach. Salahuddin, who leads the Big West in steals, had a career-high nine and eight assists. Keith Torian led the Aggies with 11 points.

In their last meeting, an anti-Semitic epithet directed at Long Beach Coach Seth Greenberg, who is Jewish, was discovered in the visitors’ locker room at the Pan American Center. And Greenberg alleges his African-American players were the object of racial slurs by spectators during the game.

“I don’t think it was a factor,” Greenberg said. “We were playing for something much more important. The issue itself was something that was addressed.”

No problems this time--except on the court for the Aggies (8-13, 5-8). They couldn’t keep pace with the 49ers’ defensive intensity.

The 49ers, sparked by their 1-3-1 zone defense, took a 21-5 lead with 13:03 remaining in the first half. They closed out the Aggies with their most impressive defensive run of the season, scoring eight points in the final 52 seconds of the half. That pushed a 33-24 lead to a 41-24 halftime advantage.

“That was a beauty wasn’t it?” Aggie Coach Neil McCarthy said. “I haven’t seen anything like that in a long while. Five straight turnovers. Unbelievable.”