Stifling defense powered by an electric crowd carried the Long Beach State Men’s basketball team to a 69-60 win over Kansas State Friday night at the Walter Pyramid.
After a sub-par defensive performance at Xavier in which they gave up 97 points, the 49ers (2-2) held the Wildcats (2-1) to a dismal 32 percent shooting from the field. Head coach Dan Monson praised his team’s defensive effort.
“For me, I’m just relieved we can leave tonight with a little bit of a defensive identity,” Monson said. “We’ve just been really searching for stops, and I know part of it was they never got into an offensive flow. I really think our guys had something to do with that. We played with a lot of energy and with a lot more aggressiveness today than we did in our two division one games. It’s a good start for us to build on.”
Kansas State head coach Bruce Weber took the blame for his team’s performance, saying that he didn’t do a good job of making sure his players understood the mental state and readiness necessary to win a game on the road.
“You got to give a lot of credit to Long Beach,” Weber said. “I thought they played very hard. Our guards go 2-28 and 0-14 from three; you’re not going to win those. You’re going to miss some shots, but I thought they forced things. Our style of basketball is to move the basketball, move it to open people. [LBSU’s] bigs I thought were very effective. They were able to score and rebound. We had some breakdowns defensively, but they kept giving us chances, and we just couldn’t get anything going offensively.”
Weber admitted that the crowd played a role in the outcome of the game. He said he’s played in bigger arenas in front of louder fans, but was impressed with the crowd at the Pyramid.
“I think fans were excited,” Weber said. “The students did a great job. I think they energized their players. It was a positive thing for their program, and it really got their guys to play at a high level.”
Sophomore guard Branford Jones gave the 49ers a nice spark off the bench, scoring a team-leading 14 points on 4-6 shooting. Jones sealed the win in the final minutes, going 5-5 from the free-throw line.
“I thought Branford was outstanding,” Monson said. “He’s just makes the right play.”
Monson said he thought Jones and senior guards McKay LaSalle and Tyler Lamb did a great job defending Kansas State sophomore guard Marcus Foster, one of the Wildcats’ best perimeter players.
“I’ve seen Foster play a lot, but I’ve never seen him that out of sync,” Monson said. “A lot of it was him, but some of it was our guys. [Foster] got a couple open ones, but he wasn’t in rhythm because we did a good job early.”
Senior point guard Mike Caffey, who missed practice the day before with flu-like symptoms, said after the game that he felt healthy. Caffey had another efficient game, going 4-7 from the field and 3-6 from the free-throw line on his way to scoring 13 points. Caffey said the team had one goal in mind for this game.
“Our main focus was defense,” Caffey said. “That’s what we came to do tonight. Offensively, some guys didn’t have the groove that they normally have. But we all focused on defense and got the stops we needed.”
Now the 49ers will make the short drive to UCLA Sunday night, a team Monson called the best offensive squad they will play so far this year. Before they face Bruins, though, Monson said he’ll enjoy the victory with his team for a few hours.
“This is a good group,” Monson said. “They have pride. They’re not where they need to be, and we’re not good enough yet. But today was a great step in the right direction