December 9, 1998
49ers retreat, suffer worst defeat
Basketball: Erratic team beaten badly at SW Missouri St.
By GORDON VERRELL
Staff writer Long Beach Press Telegram
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - The only thing consistent about Long Beach State's men's basketball team so far is its inconsistency. And its bad luck.
A good game one night, a clunker the next . . . and then one like Wednesday night, when the 49ers put on their poorest performance of the season in an 80-52 blowout loss to Southwest Missouri State before 6,903 mostly bored fans at Hammons Student Center.
The game wasn't even five minutes old and Southwest Missouri had an eight-point lead. The 49ers whittled it to five, once, but the Bears (6-1) went on a 14-3 splurge and never looked back. They led by 26 at the break, 46-20, and with 7:01 to go they had themselves a 33-point lead.
It was the 49ers' most-lopsided loss of the season, their worst shooting night, a mere 33 percent (19 for 57), and they compounded that by committing 24 turnovers, matching their season high.
Asked to size it up, 49er coach Wayne Morgan replied, "It was a combination of their intensity and our mistakes."
The 49ers (3-5) were woefully shorthanded, suiting up only nine players, including walk-on James Delone. They were without 6-11 Mate Milisa, sidelined with a sprained ankle sustained in Saturday night's loss to Utah. And they didn't have point guard Tommie Davis, who missed practice Tuesday morning and later informed Morgan of a family emergency, explaining he couldn't make the trip. Morgan said he will look more into Davis' situation when the club returns home today.
Then, Antrone Lee came up lame midway through the second half, jamming his left foot into the basket standard.
So, for Saturday night's rematch with Kansas State (7-2) at the Pyramid, Milisa is definitely out, Lee is questionable and Davis is ... well, that's still to be determined.
"This was a big setback," Grant Stone said afterward, alluding to the steep plunge downhill from Saturday night's respectable showing against Utah to Wednesday night's waxing. "We've just got to come together more as a team . . . or Kansas State" - which hammered the 49ers last year in Manhattan, Kan., 89-50 - "will come in and the same thing could happen then. It hurts not having Mate and Tommie, but that's no excuse. We're working hard, but we've got to play harder."
The 49ers were in a bind to begin with. Without Milisa in the middle, it was up to Ian Milley and Stone, both sophomores, to try to control Southwest Missouri's all-conference center, Danny Moore. It was a struggle. Milley, who made his first start of the season and second of his career, picked up his third personal foul with 6:14 left in the first half. And Stone drew his third 2 1/2 minutes into the second half.
Moore played only seven minutes in the second half, certainly the major reason the 49ers were outscored by just two, 34-32, in the final 20 minutes.
Moore finished with 10 points and a half-dozen rebounds. Guard Kevin Ault led Southwest Missouri with 18 points, connecting on six of seven shots, four of them 3-pointers. In all, 13 players scored for the Bears.