Long Beach State Slips Out of First in Sloppy Loss to Pacific

The race for the Big West Conference championship is winding down, but Long Beach State isn’t sprinting toward the finish line.

Long Beach played poorly for an entire game Thursday night and lost to Pacific, 71-61, before 4,042 at the Pyramid. Long Beach, which didn’t play well in the first half of its previous two losses, lost for the third time in its last four games.

However, Long Beach remained virtually tied with idle UC Irvine for first place. Irvine is percentage points.

“We stunk,” 49er Coach Seth Greenberg said. “We. And when I say ‘we’ I mean the coaching staff stunk, they out-trained us, their secretary kicked our butts and every one of their players. We stunk.”

Although it was not immediately known what the 49er support staff did wrong, the rest was obvious. Long Beach, which dropped to 15-10 and 10-6 in the Big West, didn’t play with purpose . . . or much of an effort, Greenberg and his players said.

“We got beat in every aspect of the basketball game,” said Greenberg, whose team is 9-3 at the Pyramid this season. “It’s just mind-boggling to me that we could be that ill-prepared for this basketball game. I’m responsible for it, but I can’t explain it.”

Senior forward Juaquin Hawkins offered a theory.

“We got too relaxed and we were too passive,” Hawkins said. “It starts in practice with guys not practicing hard. We were representing the conference as the first-place team. It’s just embarrassing.”

Pacific (12-11, 8-7), which moved into fourth place, took a 55-40 lead on a three-pointer by forward Charles Jones with 11:35 to play. But the Tigers helped the 49ers get back in the game by not making a field goal for 6:20.

Long Beach cut the lead to five, 57-52, on a layup by point guard Rasul Salahuddin with 5:23 to play. But the 49ers didn’t capitalize on several good scoring opportunities. A three-pointer by guard Adam Jacobsen ended the Tigers’ scoring drought with 3:27 remaining, gave the Tigers a 60-52 lead and ended the 49ers’ hopes.

“They went with a small lineup and that created some matchup problems for us,” Greenberg said. “They beat us to every loose ball . . . they had twice as many offensive rebounds.”

Jacobsen made five of 11 three-pointers and led all scorers with 21 points. The Tigers made 12 of 28 three-pointers.

“The most important part of our scouting report,” Greenberg said, shaking his head in disgust. “They average 14 threes a game. Jacobsen is kind of relentless the way he comes at you.”

Long Beach defeated Pacific, 83-77, at Stockton Jan. 27. The 49ers also shut out the Tigers for several minutes in the second half of that game.

“I told our guys in practice we would be ready and Long Beach might take us for granted,” Tiger Coach Bob Thomason said. “I think that’s what happened.”

Guard James Cotton had 14 for Long Beach and Salahuddin had 11. Long Beach wasted an inspired effort from Brandon Titus, a seldom-used point guard.

Titus was expected to be the primary backup for Salahuddin, but Jamie Davis has fulfilled that role. In eight minutes Thursday night, Titus scored eight points while making all four of his field-goal attempts. He provided the 49ers’ only spark--but it was far from enough.

“I thought Brandon gave us some really good minutes,” Greenberg said. “We weren’t getting anything from other people, so I decided to leave him out there.”