Long Beach Breezes Past San Jose State

Long Beach State honored its seniors with an emotional ceremony before its final regular-season home game Saturday night at the Pyramid, then the departing group thanked the 49ers’ fans.

Each contributed as Long Beach defeated San Jose State, 105-86, in a Big West Conference game before a sellout crowd of 4,437. The victory ended a two-game home losing streak for the 49ers, who have clinched a spot in the six-team Big West tournament.

“It was really emotional for me,” said senior forward Juaquin Hawkins, who had 10 points and four steals. “The crowd really surprised me.”

The 49ers remained percentage points behind UC Irvine in the race for the conference title.

“It was a big game for a lot of reasons,” said 49er Coach Seth Greenberg, whose team improved to 16-10 overall and 11-6 in the conference. “When you have five seniors like ours, you want to send them out the right way.”

Center Gerry Branner, guard Eric Brown and swingman Jamie Davis, usually reserves, joined Hawkins and point guard Rasul Salahuddin in the starting lineup. Salahuddin, playing despite a broken bone in the thumb of his right hand, scored 15 points with seven assists and five steals as Long Beach set a season high in scoring.

Brown scored nine of his 13 points in the first half as Long Beach shot 64.5% from the field and took control of the game with a 47-33 halftime lead. The 49ers shot 63.3% overall and were never seriously challenged by the Spartans (8-16, 7-9).

The 49ers were led in scoring by guard James Cotton, who had 20 points. Sam Allen led the Spartans with 23 points.