49ers Feel Right at Home With Win at Fullerton

The first chant started with five minutes to go, and by that time Long Beach State was doing what it has done in all of its 14 consecutive victories: wear down an opponent with an explosive second half.

And the seemingly partisan crowd was loving it.

“Long Beach State! Long Beach State!” was the cheer at Titan Gym

as the visiting 49ers ran away from Cal State Fullerton, 98-82, Saturday and ran up a big lead in the Western Division of the Big West Conference.

Long Beach made 37 of 58 field-goal attempts and outrebounded Fullerton, 31-19.

And the Titans (8-11, 3-5) didn’t play that badly.

Fullerton made 30 of 53 shots from the floor and trailed, 63-61, with 10 1/2 minutes to go thanks to nine straight points by forward Ike Harmon, who finished with a team-high 23.

But Harmon picked up his fourth foul 20 seconds later and Long Beach regained its poise. The 49ers went on an 11-2 run that culminated with Fullerton center Josh Fischer picking up his fifth foul. That sent 49er center Mate Milisa to the line at the 7:33 mark, and his two free throws made it 74-63.

“After that,” said Milisa, who finished with 18 points and 13 rebounds, “they didn’t have anybody down low and so we tried to take advantage of it.”

The 49ers (16-3, 8-0) succeeded with basket after basket in the low post, which brought a strong reaction from the Titans’ largest crowd of season, 1,925, many of whom were rooting for Long Beach.

“They’re a lot better than they were a year ago,” Harmon said. “They’ve made some adjustments. This was a big win for them. This one was special.”

Long Beach has never done well in Titan Gym and, recently, against Fullerton anywhere they have played.

Although the 49ers lead the once-heated rivalry, 45-32, Long Beach had dropped five of its last six games with the Titans and had not won in Fullerton since 1996.

“This place, Fullerton, used to be a big rival game, somebody told me,” Milisa said. “I don’t think anybody on our team, not the coaches or the players, had won here, so this feels good. I don’t know if that rivalry had anything to do with the way we played, but there were a lot of Long Beach State people here tonight and it felt good. It felt just like we were in the Pyramid, like we were playing in our home.”

Harmon said he figured his output in the second half would help the Titans regroup.

“I was hoping it would, but then I picked up a stupid foul,” he said. “If there’s any way I can feel good about this performance tonight, I’ll have to dig down deep inside myself to find out. I hate losing, especially to locals.”

The 49ers are up by four games in the Big West’s Western Division thanks to UC Irvine’s 59-53 victory over Pacific Saturday. Pacific and UC Santa Barbara are tied for second with 4-4 conference records.

Long Beach State Coach Wayne Morgan wouldn’t say that he played up the rivalry, but agreed that it might have played a part in the outcome.

“Fullerton beat us twice last season. Anytime somebody beats us twice, you want to try to beat them,” Morgan said. “That’s motivation enough.”