Men's Basketball, Men's Sports, Sports

LBSU looks to start win streak at Xavier

With its first win under its belt, the Long Beach men’s basketball team will head to Cincinnati to face Xavier Tuesday.

The 49ers (1-1) bounced back with a 74-64 win against San Francisco State on Homecoming after dropping their season opener 95-90 at BYU. Despite the win, head coach Dan Monson called his team’s defense on three-point shooting terrible through two games.

“What I’m looking for is guys who have an urgency to fix it now,” Monson said. “We don’t need to lose all these preseason games like we did last year. We’re good enough to win some of these and fix the [defense].”

The 49ers will travel to Xavier (1-0) for the second road trip of the season. They are expected to have senior guard Tyler Lamb back when they face the Musketeers. Lamb was suspended for the first two games of the season for violation of team rules, according to LBSU Sports Information Director Roger Kirk.

In Lamb’s absence, the 49ers saw an extended look at some of the freshmen that Monson has raved about in practice. Among the players he singled out was freshman guard Deontae North, who scored 14 points in his collegiate debut.

“Freshmen can play at this level,” Monson said. “The luxury we have is we have some seniors to blend in with them. Where Duke’s [freshmen] are all going to the NBA, we still have Mike Caffey and Tyler Lamb and McKay LaSalle to blend in with them.”

Senior guard McKay LaSalle is off to a great start after struggling to find his form last year. The three-point specialist is shooting 60 percent from beyond the arc, and senior guard Mike Caffey thinks confidence has made all the difference with LaSalle.

“First game he came out and exploded,” Caffey said. “His confidence came a long way from last year. I look for him every time down the court because he’s a great shooter, he can make any shot. It’s just helpful for us to have a shooter like him.”

Through two games, the 49ers are averaging over 80 points a game. Caffey said he thought a good shooting summer with the coaches and extra hours in the gym contributed to the team’s excellent shooting.

Monson said after the win against San Francisco that the secret to the team’s success has been having guards like Caffey who can take over games whenever necessary.

“This is my seventh year of having an all-league point guard,” Monson said. “If you want to have success, you go get good guards. You have to have someone you trust on the court to be your quarterback, and Mike has done a tremendous job for three years now since Casper Ware left. In his first year, he did a great job of learning and getting better.”

The 49ers will face a Xavier team coming off a 90-63 rout of Northern Arizona in its season opener Friday. The Musketeers had three players score at least 20 points, with freshman forward Trevon Bluiett leading the team with 25 points.

The Musketeers hope Bluiett can emerge as a consistent scorer for them, as they lost three of their top four scorers from last year.

The 49ers will play at Xavier on Tuesday at 4:00 p.m. local time.

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