49ers Sock It to Gauchos, 54-46

Long Beach State braved the flooded roadways getting to UC Santa Barbara Saturday, but it was worth the trip.

The 49ers, behind an effective defense and the offensive play of center Andrew Betts, emerged with a 54-46 Big West Conference victory, their first road triumph of the season, before a crowd of only 1,153.

The 7-foot-1 Betts had 14 rebounds and four blocked shots to go along with his 27 points as Long Beach improved to 9-3 overall and 1-7 in the Big West.

The 49ers trailed, 44-40, with 3:54 remaining, but utilized a zone-matchup defense to outscore the Gauchos, 14-2, for the final margin.

Guard Raymond Tutt led Santa Barbara (7-3, 4-6) with 15 points and eight rebounds. The Gauchos shot only 28.3%.

Guard Antrone Lee had 11 points, seven assists and six rebounds for the 49ers, whose shooting wasn’t much better at 37.5%

Utah State 69, Cal State Fullerton 44--The Titans shot only 29% from the field and scored their fewest amount of points in nine years in falling to the Aggies in a Big West game at Logan, Utah.

Fullerton (8-12, 3-7) led, 7-5, four minutes into the game, then scored only four points in the next 13 minutes as Utah State took a 26-11 lead.

Fullerton made only six of 24 shots in the first half and trailed, 31-15. Utah State (18-5, 9-1), which leads the Eastern Division of the Big West by two games, never gave Fullerton any hopes of a second-half comeback as it went on an 11-3 run after intermission.

The Titans’ leading scorer, Ike Harmon, scored only nine points and fouled out with nine minutes to play. Chris Dade also had nine points on two-for-seven shooting.

Home victories are nothing new to Utah State, which set a school record with its 23rd consecutive victory at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum. Utah State was led by center Donnie Johnson’s 18 points and six rebounds and guard Justin Jones’ 14 points and five rebounds.