January 31, 1999

Pacific's zone shoves 49ers into third place

College basketball: Early 10-point lead fails to hold up.

49ERS BASKETBALL Men Saturday: Pacific 70, Long Beach St. 59 Thursday: vs. UC Santa Barbara Site/Time: Pyramid, 7:35 p.m.

By ROGER PHILLIPS
Staff writer Long Beach Press Telegram

STOCKTON - Ramel Lloyd sat alone on a staircase, listening to music on his headphones and trying to tune out the events of the previous couple of hours.

Long Beach State's men's basketball team had just blown an early 10-point lead Saturday night en route to a 70-59 loss to Pacific before a Spanos Center crowd of 4,492, and the 49ers' sophomore guard was taking it hard.

He had hit only four of 18 shots (just one of 11 after intermission), his struggles epitomizing those of his team, which made eight baskets in the game's first 8:30 and only 11 more the rest of the night.

"After a loss like this," Lloyd said, "I try to keep to myself. These games mean a lot to me."

And a victory in this one would have meant a lot to Long Beach State. The defeat dropped the 49ers (8-11, 5-4 in the Big West) into third place in the conference's Western Division, one-half game behind Pacific (10-8, 5-3) and 1 1/2 games behind first-place UC Santa Barbara.

It was Pacific's 25th consecutive Big West home victory, a streak that began after the 49ers won in Stockton three years ago. Additionally, it was the 170th victory at Pacific for 11th-year coach Bob Thomason, moving him past Dick Edwards and into first place on the school's all-time list.

For Long Beach State coach Wayne Morgan, the loss was attributable not to his team's miserable shooting but to its poor rebounding. Pacific had a 40-27 margin on the boards, and the Tigers pulled down 14 offensive rebounds.

"Shooting is an inconsistent thing," Morgan said. "That's the nature of the game. The big story was we got outrebounded. They had too many offensive rebounds."

And to think the night had begun so well for the 49ers.

In the first 8:30, the 49ers hit eight of their first 13 shots, their aggressive defense forced the Tigers to miss 11 of their first 13 shots, and Long Beach State built an 18-8 lead.

But for much of the rest of the night, Long Beach State was befuddled by Pacific's zone defense, and in the 24 minutes after the 49ers took their 10-point lead, they sank only five of 31 shots and were outscored, 41-20.

"They got off to an early lead, but we didn't panic," Pacific freshman guard Nathan Davis said. "It was just a matter of dealing with their quickness. We kept them off guard with our zone."

Pacific took the lead for good, at 36-35, on a layup by Davis early in the second half, and never led by fewer than four points in the final 5:30.

"They went into the zone and it gave us problems," 49ers sophomore forward Grant Stone said. "We needed to execute better."

And execution against zone defenses is something the 49ers will have to improve on if they are to get their season on track.

"We're going to see a lot of different zones because of our athleticism and shooting," Stone said. "We didn't move the ball as well as we wanted to (against Pacific)."

The 49ers better learn to deal with zone defenses quickly. In Thursday's loss at the Pyramid, the 49ers held a nine-point second-half lead but ultimately were undone by Boise State's zone defense.

Saturday, senior guard D'Cean Bryant led Long Beach State with 14 points, Stone scored 13 and Lloyd 12. Junior center Mate Milisa scored just nine points, five below his average. Junior guard Clay McKnight led Pacific with 17 points.