December 13, 1998
The most recent loss for the Beach came Saturday night when they were beaten by the visiting Wildcats of Kansas St. 90-77 in front of 2,100 at the Pyramid.
Unlike last seasons debacle, the Beach was within 5pts with 3 1/2 minutes left in the game but would come no closer. Rock Lloyd tossed in a career high 36 pts for the Beach while D'Cean O'Bryant had 14. Definite progress was seen this evening and with Charles O'Neal becoming eligible and having 10 days to practice with the team before the Northwestern game and Mate having the same amount of time to heal his badly sprained ankle, things may be looking up for the Beach!.
'Rock' not enough to beat K-State
College basketball: LBSU hangs with 'Cats, but wear down in end.
By GORDON VERRELL
Staff writer Long Beach Press Telegram
Bigger, more experienced Kansas State ran wave after wave of players at Long Beach State Saturday night, but it wasn't until the final three minutes that the Wildcats finally were able to sufficiently wear down the 49ers and claim a 90-77 non-conference victory at the Pyramid.
Kansas State, which improved to 8-2 with its fourth win in a row, used 11 players. Long Beach State didn't even have 11 players, just nine.
"It wasn't an artistic success, but we managed to win," said Kansas State coach Tom Asbury, who formerly coached at Pepperdine. "Long Beach had a lot of adversity, but they scrapped. They didn't fold their tent."
The 49ers, who fell to 3-6 with their third loss in a row, were without 6-11 center Mate Milisa, who missed his second consecutive game because of a sprained ankle. Also missing for the second game in a row was starting point guard Tommie Davis, who formally quit the team on Friday. And 6-10 Ian Milley was playing with a badly sprained right thumb, an injury sustained at practice on Friday.
What the 49ers did have, however, was an extremely red-hot Rock Lloyd, who peppered away for a career-high 36 points --- matching the 11th-best one-game scoring performance at Long Beach State --- and afterward proclaimed, "I definitely see us making progress."
Of course, anything even remotely on the plus side would look good after the way the 49ers were manhandled just three nights earlier at Southwest Missouri State, losing by 28, a game they were never in.
On Saturday night, the 49ers hung around OK in the first half, actually taking a six-point lead at one point, but with 2 1/2 minutes left before the halftime intermission Kansas State opened a 13-point lead. It looked like a repeat performance.
Except Lloyd --- whose previous high-scoring game was 25 --- didn't get the message. He pumped in a basket with 1 1/2 minutes left in the opening half --- the first field goal by the 49ers in six minutes --- and then a 3-pointer with 50 seconds left, and then another 3-pointer at the buzzer. The 13-point deficit was suddenly five, 41-36.
Same thing in the second half. Kansas State got on top by 16 with 7:04 left in the game, then the 49ers crawled back. This time it was D'Cean Bryant who suddenly got a hot hand. After missing on his first seven field-goal attempts, Bryant found the range. He scored 10 of his 14 points during a 3 1/2-minute run. Twice the 49ers whittled Kansas State's lead to five, the last time with 3:35 remaining.
But the Wildcats out-scored the 49ers, 16-8, down the stretch.
"That might have been our best game," Bryant said afterward. "I had one of the worst performances of my career at Southwest Missouri (1-for-9 shooting and as many turnovers as points: five) "We didn't get the victory, but we really have come together as a team the last couple of days."
Wayne Morgan, the 49ers' coach, didn't disagree. "We made progress," he said. "There's no question in my mind, (Kansas State) is an NCAA tournament caliber team. If we keep making progress we'll have success in our league."
Cortez Groves led Kansas State with 21 points. He didn't make everything he threw up, which was fortunate; in the second half, while trotting down the floor, he got sick and . . . well, he heaved, right there.
"Embarrassed? Nah," Groves said. "But I have to say, Long Beach State was a little better than we thought."