November 17, 1998
By GORDON VERRELL Staff writer Long Beach Press Telegram
For a good while Tuesday night at Loyola Marymount's Gersten Pavilion, Long Beach State's men's basketball team appeared headed for a second successive loss to start the new season. That wouldn't have looked good at all, especially since that 0-2 would have come against two teams that were a combined 19-36 last season.
But the 49ers rallied from a 14-point deficit, catching LMU at the end of regulation on D'Cean Bryant's 3-pointer, then winning in overtime, 98-92.
It's the most points a Wayne Morgan-coached 49er team has ever scored, and Long Beach needed just about every one of them to gain the school's 700th basketball victory.
"If we'd lost," Morgan said, "it would have been awfully tough . . . guys would be asking themselves, 'can we win?' At least we know we can win."
However, it wasn't until roughly the midway point of the second half that the 49ers appeared to get the idea they could, indeed, win. After a sloppy first half, in which Loyola Marymount (0-1) opened a 37-29 lead at intermission, the 49ers fell deeper in trouble, trailing by 14 points.
"I really wasn't worried that much, because it was still early," Morgan said, noting the time: 18:25 still to go. "They were shooting a lot of 3s, and if they aren't hitting them, it gives you a chance to get back."
It took awhile, but the 49ers crept back, getting to within five a couple of times, then three, then two . . .
"We kept fighting," Bryant said afterward. "We'd get a 3, they'd get a 3 . . . and we were making our free throws. That was the big thing."
LMU still led by three with 10.5 seconds remaining, when the Lions' Willie Allen missed a free throw, and Bryant tied up Allen for the rebound, the ball going to the 49ers on the alternate possession.
So, who to shoot the 3?
"I knew they'd be looking for Rock (Lloyd) or Mate (Milisa) to take the 3," Bryant said, "so I kind of lagged back, hoping Ron (Johnson, the 49ers' freshman guard) would see me."
Johnson did, and Bryant launched a long 3-pointer (Morgan said it was a 30-footer) and he connected, dramatically tying the score, 80-80, to force the overtime.
"We still had more work to do," Bryant said afterward, "and with Tommie (Davis) and Antrone (Lee) fouled out, we all knew we had to step it up."
The 49ers, who hadn't had a lead since the first two minutes of the game, never trailed in the overtime, out-scoring LMU, 18-12.
"We got better as the game went along," said Morgan, explaining that in the raggedy first half "we just didn't run our offense."
The 49ers shot only 36 percent in the first half but 47 in the second and 43 for the game. Lloyd led with 25 points, including seven free throws. Bryant, who was 4-for-6 shooting 3-pointers, and Milisa each had 21.
LMU's little Haywood Eaddy led everybody with 27 points, but he was hounded all evening by Davis - or at least until he fouled out - who restricted the 5-4 guard to just five points in the first half.
The 49ers out-rebounded LMU, 46-38, with Richie Smalls grabbing 11. But they also turned the ball over 24 times in all.
After missing 14 free throws in their season-opening 83-65 loss to Cal State Northridge, the 49ers this time missed only seven of 28.
And, the 49ers already have as many road wins as they did all last season: one.