Long Beach Wins Again

After a school-worst start, Long Beach State has its first two-game winning streak of the season.

Guard Tony Darden scored 19 points and center Vance Lawhorn made all seven of his shots to lead the hot-shooting 49ers to a 79-73 victory over Cal State Fullerton in front of 1,661 Thursday night at the Pyramid.

Long Beach, 5-15 overall and 3-7 in the Big West Conference, shot a season-high 68.2% as it won for the third time in seven games after starting the season with a program-worst 1-11 record.

The 49ers missed only four shots in the second half and needed the sharp shooting to fight off a scrappy Fullerton team, which lost for the sixth time in its last seven games.

“It gives you a little confidence in that you can put [good] games back to back,” Long Beach Coach Larry Reynolds said. “Sometimes when you have a victory, you’re not really sure whether or not you can come out and have another good game. It’s good to see after four days of practice that we could come out here and play well.”

Lawhorn and Kevin Roberts each had 16 points and Jibril Hodges added 10 points and a season-high seven assists.

The 49ers led throughout but had to fight off several challenges in the second half. Darden made six free throws down the stretch after Fullerton (6-14, 4-6) pulled to within 72-68 with 48.2 seconds remaining. Long Beach still is last in the league, a half-game behind UC Riverside.

Fullerton’s Pape Sow led all scorers with 22 points and added nine rebounds in 29 minutes off the bench. Sow was playing his second game since being reinstated after an 11-game suspension for a petty theft conviction.

-- Eric Stephens

UC Santa Barbara 62, Utah State 50 -- Branduinn Fullove scored 13 of Santa Barbara’s final 15 points to help the Gauchos move into a first-place tie in the Big West with the victory before 2,971 at the Thunderdome in Goleta.

Santa Barbara (10-10, 7-3) took a 45-32 lead with 14:35 left in the second half, but Utah State (16-5, 7-3) went on a 10-0 run to cut its deficit to three points with 8:58 remaining.

Nick Jones made two free throws with 8:28 left to give Santa Barbara a 47-42 lead and then Fullove took over.

“I felt really good,” said Fullove, who struggled to a seven-point, three-for-12 effort in a 75-59 loss at Utah State last month. “I was letting the game come to me.”

Fullove finished with 21 points on nine-of-13 shooting, including all six of his shots in the second half.

Mark Hull had 13 points for Santa Barbara.

Santa Barbara held all-conference forward Desmond Penigar to two points and limited the Aggies to 34.8% shooting in the second half.

-- John Ortega

Loyola Marymount 86, Portland 71 -- It had been more than four years since the Lions won a West Coast Conference game by such a large margin, and it came at an opportune time.

Andy Osborn scored 19 points and the Lions found someone to join them in the West Coast Conference basement.

The Lions (8-15, 2-6) moved into a tie for seventh with Portland (9-12, 2-6) in front of 1,235 at Gersten Pavilion.

Osborn made eight of 10 shots for Loyola Marymount, which won for only the third time in its last 15 games. The Lions hadn’t won a WCC game by as many points since an 89-73 victory over San Diego on Jan. 21, 1999.

Loyola Marymount even out-rebounded Portland, 39-27, taking care of a season-long problem for at least one night.

“We came out tonight with a chip on our shoulder, being 1-6 in the first half [of WCC play],” Osborn said. “Our goal in the second half was to start 1-0.”

The Lions can’t get too giddy: First-place Gonzaga (17-5, 8-0) comes to Gersten on Saturday.

Dustin Geddis scored 24 points for Portland, which lost for the fifth time in six games. Geddis fouled out with 6:24 left.

-- Mike Bresnahan