March 13, 2010

Box Score

ANAHEIM, Calif. - Long Beach State gave Pacific a little taste of its own medicine Friday night in the semifinals of the Big West Conference Tournament at the Anaheim Convention Center.

The Beach (17-15) turned the tables on Pacific a year after the Tigers (20-11) eliminated the 49ers from the Big West Conference Tournament after LBSU swept Pacific in the regular season. This year, the Tigers owned a regular-season sweep of the 49ers but LBSU won the one that counts advancing to the Big West Tournament championship game with a 68-61 win. Long Beach State will meet No. 1 seed UC Santa Barbara at 5 p.m. on ESPN2.

Long Beach State did to Pacific what the Tigers did to The Beach and a number of other opponents this year. LBSU clamped down on Pacific defensively holding the Tigers to just 8-of-26 shooting (30.8 percent) in the first half and 21-of-59 shooting (35.6 percent) for the game. LBSU countered making 20-of-51 shots (39.2 percent), including a respectable (by Pacific's defensive standards) 42.9 percent in the first half when the 49ers built a 13-point halftime lead.

Casper Ware spearheaded the Long Beach State attack scoring a career-high 22 points, including 14 in the second half. He struggled from the floor making just 6-of-16 shots, but one of the six was a monster fade-away baseline 15-foot jumper with the shot clock expiring the pushed the 49ers lead to five with 2:03 to play. Ware helped ice the game from the free throw line making 5-of-6 free throws in the final 1:06 of the game. He finished the game making 10-of-11 from the line to lead Long Beach State to a strong 21-of-29 effort (72.4 percent) from the stripe.

It wasn't a one-man show by Ware, who also had six assists, five steals and four rebounds in the win. Larry Anderson scored 14 points, including 5-of-6 shooting from the free throw line. Stephan Gilling added 12 points, all on 3-pointers and had four boards.

It was Gilling who helped spark Long Beach State's big first half. The senior canned 3-of-5 threes before the break. His first came at the 14:29 mark and gave the 49ers their first lead. He added another one at the 9:10 mark to push The Beach's lead to 16-15. His final one of the half came with 5:24 to play and gave LBSU an 11-point lead that it extended to 34-21 at the half.

Things got dicey in the second half. Long Beach Sate pushed the lead to 16 with 15:47 to play on a layup by Anderson. But Pacific hung around cutting the lead to five with 11:39 to play with an 11-0 run capped by an old fashioned three-point play by Terrell Smith.

Long Beach State would regain the momentum scoring the next eight points, with the first six coming from Ware. He made a layup, hit a jumper and then knocked down a pair of free throws. Anderson finished the 7-0 run with two free throws of his own.

Pacific rallied with tough defense holding the 49ers scoreless for the next 4:42 while running off 10 straight points to get within three. Ware stopped the run with two free throws, Joe Ford (team-high 16 points) responded with a dunk to get the Tigers within three but then Gilling made what might have been the biggest shot of the game. Eight second after Ford pulled the Tigers within a basket Gilling canned a three from the right wing to push the lead back to six with 3:27 to play.

Pacific would answer with a three of its own from Pat Eveland, but Ware knocked down the shot-clock beating jumper to make it a five-point game and Pacific could never get closer than four the rest of the way.