For the 4,122 in attendance, as well as some of the players, the excitement was almost uncontainable on Saturday night.
The Long Beach State men’s basketball team never trailed in what turned into an 86-65 victory over Alaska-Anchorage in its season opener at the Walter Pyramid.
The Beach (1-0) was able to score a win in its season-opening game for the first time in head coach Dan Monson’s three-year tenure at LBSU.
“It’s good to have the first one over with,” Monson said. “We had to bring them down from Alaska, but we got one.”
Sophomore Larry Anderson led the scoring for the 49ers with a game-high 18 points and a game-high seven assists in 35 minutes. The 6-foot-5 guard was one of five starters to score in double-figures for The Beach on Homecoming night.
“I’m just trying to get my team involved,” Anderson said. “Once I get them involved … then it’s going to open up for me to get my shots.”
T.J. Robinson led The Beach with a game-high 11 rebounds, to go along with 15 points, en route to collecting his first double-double of the season. The sophomore had five double-doubles last season.
The Seawolves, who officially counted the game as an exhibition, were led by Drew Robinson’s 12 points.
The 49ers were energized to start the game and it showed, especially early on in the game.
The Beach took a 3-0 lead to start the contest on a 3-pointer from point guard Casper Ware, and pushed its lead to 19 in the first 15 minutes of the game. Ware finished with 16 points and six assists for the 49ers.
Monson also had the ‘Niners in a press defense for most of the half, which led to a 17-point advantage in points off turnovers for the opening period. The 49ers defense also had 14 steals, with five coming from Anderson.
Sophomore Eugene Phelps had one of the first-half highlights when he threw down a dunk off a pass from Greg Plater.
All was not good for Phelps, who earned the starting nod at center, as just seconds after his dunk the sophomore picked up a second foul only seven minutes into the game. Phelps and his replacement, senior Arturas Lazdauskas, both fouled out of the game in 11 and 10 minutes played, respectively.
“Obviously [Phelps] and Arturas never got into a flow,” Monson said. “And that’s going to happen, we’re really undersized in there.”
All five starters contributed 37 of the 49ers’ 47 first-half points, and finished with 74 of the team’s 86-point total.
“Those six will be our main scorers,” Monson said. “And the rest of [the team] just needs to come in and be solid. When you have six scorers that are balanced, that’s plenty.”
Overall, Monson was not content with the 21-point victory, and added that the team would need a better effort with seven consecutive upcoming road games.
“I was really disappointed with the last 25 minutes,” Monson said. “With as many road games as we have, that’s a recipe for disaster, not being able to sustain things.”
The 49ers will travel to take on Pepperdine at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, before traveling to Notre Dame for a contest with the Fighting Irish on Thursday.
Game notes
Sophomore Lin Chang did not dress for the contest as he was serving a one-game, NCAA-mandated suspension.