LEXINGTON, Ky. — Fresh off Kentucky’s storied program’s NCAA-record 2,000th win, the Long Beach State men’s basketball team was hoping the Wildcats were going to have that Y2K hangover Wednesday afternoon.
For the first 30 minutes they hung right with the third-ranked team in the nation.
Then the big boys for UK took over down low en route to an 86-73 Kentucky win. Patrick Patterson (15 points, 11 rebounds) and DeMarcus Cousins (15 points, 10 rebounds) were too much for the undersized ‘Niners.
“They pounded the ball inside and we didn’t have a lot of answers for that,” coach Dan Monson said.
The most electric backcourt combo in the country, featuring freshmen guards John Wall and Eric Bledsoe, didn’t disappoint the 24,288 in attendance. Wall finished with a game-high 19 points and Bledsoe added 11 for Kentucky (13-0). Both had five assists and four rebounds.
LBSU (6-6) also had four players in double figures. Stephan Gilling poured in 15, making 5-of-10 from beyond the arc and Larry Anderson had 15 as well.
T.J. Robinson continued his monster play inside with his sixth double-double in the last seven games, scoring 13 points and pulling down a game-high 15 rebounds (seven offensive).
Eugene Phelps added 11 points and seven rebounds, while Casper Ware, saddled with the difficult task of containing Wall, added seven points and eight assists while only turning the ball over twice.
“For our level we got a dang good point guard, too,” Monson said of Ware. “He doesn’t back down to anybody. I thought he did a great job today leading us, getting the ball through the pressure. When we don’t have him in there you can tell the difference.”
The Beach only committed 12 turnovers — a huge problem in most of its games this season, like the 23 committed in a 33-point loss to No. 2 Texas — including just four in the first half.
“Basically I was just focused on controlling the ball and controlling my team,” Ware said. “If I’m getting turnovers our team is going to be disconnected, so I just wanted to keep my team together.”
While Kentucky may have been weary following its big win Monday night over Drexel to make them the first team in NCAA history to 2,000 wins, The Beach had it even worse.
After losing in overtime to Loyola Marymount late Monday night in Los Angeles, they caught a red-eye flight to Lexington and arrived at 9 a.m. local time yesterday.
In the end, depth played a big role.
LBSU mostly plays seven guys while Kentucky, in foul trouble early, went to its bench to weather the storm. With the full complement of players back in the fold for the second half, the Widcats’ size and speed was too much.
The ‘Niners were whistled for 13 second-half fouls which led to 18 second-half free-throw attempts for UK. They knocked down 15 compared to just 3-of-6 shooting from the line by LBSU. Free-throw shooting was the difference in the scoring as Kentucky was 22-of-30 overall and Long Beach State was just 9-of-16. Both teams shot 15-of-33 from the field in the second half.
It is the best start for the Wildcats since they won their first 14 games in the 1977-78 season. That team later won Kentucky’s fifth of seven national titles.
The game was tied at 37 at intermission.
Gilling had nine first-half points to pace the LBSU attack. Robinson had seven points and nine rebounds before the break.
The Beach is off for Christmas until it plays at No. 7 Duke next Tuesday, Dec. 29th. It’s their last game before opening Big West Conference play.
Even in a loss, playing a great team to a close result gives them a lift.
“We just have to take this mentality, this-chain mentality and bring it with us to Duke,” Gilling said. “I’m not sure about the match-ups, I think that we match-up better with Duke but it’s all us coming together and being one. That’s all it’s about.”
Ware had to laugh about his emotions afterwards but knows there’s more work to be done.
“Of course we are going to feel better about ourselves after this game. We just got to focus for a whole 40 minutes instead of 30.”
Tucker Savoye is a former Daily 49er assistant sports editor and recent Long Beach State graduate.