SOUTHLAND ROUNDUP

Idaho 72, Long Beach State 64--The 49ers got a consolation prize Thursday night. Not a win. That seldom comes when a team plays 31 minutes of a 40-minute game, which the 49ers did in a loss before 2,862 at the Pyramid.

No, the reward was a back door into the Big West tournament, which Long Beach went through when UC Irvine beat UC Santa Barbara.

“As I said to them, you like to get into the tournament, but you’d like to earn your way in,” Coach Wayne Morgan said.

“We like the idea that we keep playing.”

They won’t like the idea if they keep playing the way they have been, and the way they did Thursday night. The 49ers (10-16, 6-10) have a regular-season game left, Saturday at Stockton, where Pacific hasn’t lost in 29 games.

Long Beach State has lost four of its last five and seven of its last nine.

Thursday’s loss came when Idaho’s Cameron Banks made a 15-foot jump shot to trigger a 14-2 run to a 61-51 lead.

The Vandals hadn’t held an edge since 3-2.

“I kind of figured that once we got a lead we could get a cushion,” Idaho Coach David Farrar said.

The lead came on a free throw by Clifford Gray with 8:26 to play, and the cushion was built by a three-point play by Avery Curry and a basket and two free throws each by Banks and Kevin Byrne.

Both baskets came when Banks and Byrne beat 49er defenders down the floor.

Curry, who is third in the Big West in scoring, had 23 points to lead the Vandals (9-6, 15-10), who have yet to clinch a conference bid from the Eastern Division.

Antrone Lee had 23 points for Long Beach.