College basketball: LBSU plays down to competition again.

By GORDON VERRELL
Staff writer Long Beach Press Telegram

Long Beach State's men's basketball team managed to get past Cal State Dominguez Hills Tuesday night at the Pyramid, but it was difficult telling the losers from the winners.

After the 49ers scraped by, 59-56, CSDH coach Larry Hauser said, "We feel it was a moral victory."

And Mate Milisa, the 49ers' center, was hardly jumping up and down, saying, "We won but we don't feel like we won."

Wayne Morgan, the 49ers' coach, remarked, "We really had to play in the second half to win that game."

The 49ers now have two wins in a row - one over a winless San Diego State team, the other over Division II Dominguez - and are back to .500 (3-3), prompting Milisa to say: "That was a bad performance . . . it's like we're beginning the season right now."

Milisa was the most critical 49ers, adding "We need to play much harder than this. For me, it was the worst game I've had."

The 6-11 Milisa made only three of nine shots, all of them 3-pointers. He also turned the ball over four times.

Next up for the 49ers is Utah, the national runner-up last season, and with a front line that will test the height of the Pyramid. Imagine what the towering Utes will think when they see that the 49ers were out-rebounded, 50-35, by a Dominguez team that's built considerably closer to the floor.

"I still have a hard time understanding how we out-rebounded them like that," Hauser said.

Morgan's spin was this: "They out-fought us on the boards."

No argument there.

The 49ers came out quickly, maybe a little too quickly, as it turned out.

"They had that early 8-2 lead," Hauser said, "and that's the hardest thing sometimes. Guys start thinking, 'Hey, we're up, 8-2, it's D-two school' . . . hey, they may have let up."

Dominguez (1-2) had the lead at the half, 31-27, but Long Beach - which had gone 9 1/2 minutes between field goals - came out with a rush, going on a 20-5 run to go on top by 11, 47-36.

Morgan explained, "We had to go to a smaller lineup in the second half. Our big guys couldn't contain their quickness."

The Toros pared the lead to just one, with 2:27 remaining. But Antrone Lee connected on a 3- point basket. Still, the Toros were within a 3-pointer in the final minute. D'Cean Bryant twice blocked 3-point attempts in the closing seconds.

"I knew I had to make a play," Bryant said. "It seemed we stepped and made a play when we needed to."

The 49ers certainly didn't wear out the nets, making only 20 of 55 field goal tries (36 percent), but they were eight of 20 shooting 3s (40 percent).

Ramel "Rock" Lloyd led with 15 points, Milisa had 12 and Lee 12. Jair Fray had 17 points and nine rebounds for Dominguez.

Perhaps the key for the 49ers avoiding the embarrassment of a loss was their floor play in the second half. After turning the ball over nine times in the first half, they turned it over only four more times. Eleven turnovers was by far their fewest (they averaged 22 turnovers their first five games).

Sophomore forward Grant Stone saw his first action of the season after rehabilitating his left foot following surgery in the summer. He made his only two shots, and grabbed three rebounds in his 11 minutes on the floor.

49ER NOTES: Senior forward Jared Frey, who had played in only two games, quit the team. Frey wass one of only two seniors on the squad (Tommie Davis is the other). Frey was in his second season with the 49ers after transferring from Pasadena City College. He was hampered earlier in the season with a nagging groin pull.