Long Beach Makes Turn in the Right Direction

Exactly which team has been speeding in reverse? And which one is supposedly racing toward big-time success?

You sure couldn’t tell Saturday night at the Pyramid.

Long Beach State looked liked the team heading in the right direction. Long Beach thoroughly outplayed Utah State from the start in its 71-58 Big West Conference victory in front of 4,060, which also snapped a three-game losing streak.

The 49ers improved to 8-12 overall and 4-6 in the conference, and are in a three-way tie for second in the Western Division. But the 49ers looked liked anything but the bumbling bunch they have been for, well, most of the season.

“The kids did a great job on defense tonight, no doubt about it,” Long Beach Coach Wayne Morgan said. “The frustrating thing for us has been when we seem to take a step backward.

“Hopefully, we can keep building on this. Hopefully, we will not only build on this but get much better too.”

Utah State, on the other hand, has been one of the Big West’s best all season. But it didn’t look that way Saturday night.

Long Beach used its best defensive effort of the season, and sharp three-point shooting from guard James Cotton, to shock Utah State into a lousy performance. Long Beach used a 24-9 first-half run to take a 33-17 lead with 2:49 to play before halftime and seize control that it would never give up.

Cotton was the main man during the run--and the game--making all four of his three-point attempts. He made all five of his three-point attempts in the first half and scored 18 points as Long Beach led, 36-19, at halftime.

“I really felt confident shooting tonight,” Cotton said. “This is as good as I’ve felt in along time.”

The Big West’s leading scorer, Cotton made a personal-best seven three-point shots in eight attempts and was 10 of 16 overall from the field for Long Beach. He finished with a game-high 29 points and lots of praise.

“Cotton played great. We just couldn’t stop him,” Utah State Coach Larry Eustachy said. “He was really the aggressor out there. He looked like an NBA player all night long.”

The second half was a showcase for the entire 49er team. The 49ers shot 51.7% from the field for the game and led by as many as 21 points.

Guard Brandon Titus and forwards Marcus Johnson and Brian Yankelevitz also played big roles for Long Beach. Titus had 18 points, Johnson led everyone with 13 rebounds and Yankelevitz had a personal-best seven assists.

“When James is hitting his shots like that and everyone else is playing like we played tonight, we can do a lot,” Titus said. “If we just played like this every night we would be in first place.”

Said Morgan: “When James shoots like that, we’re going to be ahead in a lot of games or right there in them.”

As for the Aggies, they were among the conference’s hottest teams--until this week. Utah State (15-7, 8-3) has lost two in a row and now trails Nevada by a half-game in the Eastern Division.

“Long Beach played a lot better tempo tonight,” Eustachy said. “They were a lot more patient and we just didn’t play well. Tonight, they looked like they started to turn things around and we just didn’t play well.”

Center Antwan Smith led Utah State with 27 points and 10 rebounds.