Long Beach State men's Basketball Defeats Nemesis, Clinches Second Consecutive Regualr Season Conference Title

The Long Beach State men’s basketball team clinched its second consecutive regular season conference title, as it dispatched of its arch-nemesis UC Santa Barbara 70-58 Wednesday night at the Walter Pyramid.

Long Beach (21-7, 13-0 Big West Conference) defeated Santa Barbara earlier this year, 71-48, and is playing with a chip on its shoulder as the Gauchos defeated them in the conference tournament the past two years.

The win was a first in many areas for the Niners. The 49ers 13-0 conference record is the first time Long Beach has gone undefeated in league play since the 1973-1974 season, when it went 12-0.

It is also the first time any Big West team has opened a season undefeated since Pacific went 18-0 in the 2003-2004 season.

The 49ers 21 wins this season is the first time Long Beach State won 20 or more games in back to back seasons since the 1972-1973 and the 1973-1974 seasons, when they won 26 and 24 games, respectively. They won 22 games last year.

Point guard Casper Ware once again led the way for Long Beach, en route to his fourth player of the week selection. He led three 49ers in double digits with 16 points, two rebounds, two assists and two steals.  

Eugene Phelps and James Ennis each added 14 points, while TJ Robinson and Larry Anderson each dropped seven points.

Long Beach jumped out to a quick 8-2 run when Ennis hit a jumper from the corner and added an emphatic dunk.

Long Beach used tough defense, forcing Santa Barbra into 20 turnovers, recording 11 steals. Phelps, Ennis, and Anderson all had three steals for the niners.

Ware attributed the team’s focus to its success especially defensively.

"We just had better focus," Ware said. "We came out ready to play from the get-go, some of the other games we wait too long to start playing. Today we played from beginning to end."

Phelps was called upon to perform this game and he answered in a big way. In addition to his 14 points, he also had six rebounds, four assists and three steals.

“I’m not used to being the go-to guy, but my teammates were looking for me, and I responded,”  Phelps said.

Saturday, they would run away with a 64-40 win over the UC Riverside Highlanders. Long Beach squeaked by 77-70 in its first meeting over Riverside, needing overtime and 11 points from Ware in the overtime period.

It was a tale of two games as Long Beach would jump to a quick start and never looked back as they would take a 41-18 lead into halftime.  In their first meeting, Long Beach struggled in the first half, going 4 of 11 to trail 27-28 heading  into the break.

Ware once again led the way with 17 points, two rebounds, four assists and three steals.  Phelps and Anderson each had 11 points.  Anderson also had a steal which helped him surpass  Lucious Harris (1989-1993) as the all-time steals leader with 201.

Phelps, however is careful not to look past anyone or any games

"This [Big West regular season championship] doesn't really mean anything, to be honest with you. We could lose the next three games, lose in the tournament and go to the NIT [National Invitational Tournament]. We're just trying to play every game to the best of our ability."

Long Beach hosts the UC Irvine Anteaters This Wednesday with a 7:05 tipoff.  They will then finish its regular season at Cal State Fullerton Saturday for a 4:05 matinee.  Saturday’s game will also be broadcast on Fox Sports West.