49ers Cruise Past Titans

Long Beach State 49ers are virtually locked into the No. 1 position

February 14, 2007

 

Kejuan Johnson scored 19 points and Aaron Nixon added 18 Wednesday night to lead a balanced Long Beach State attack to a 94-84 Big West Conference victory at Cal State Fullerton.

The first-place 49ers improved to 18-6 overall and 9-2 in the Big West and are virtually locked into the No. 1 seed in the post-season tournament.

Bobby Brown scored a career second-best 36 points for the Titans but didn't get enough help and Fullerton fell to 18-6 and 8-4, remaining in second place, one full game ahead of UC Santa Barbara, which lost at Cal Poly.

Scott Cutley had another double-double for the Titans with 15 points and 11 rebounds despite a sore leg and Frank Robinson had 19 points, but the rest of the Titans totaled only 14 points.

The 49ers had five players in doiuble figtures with Sterling Byrd getting 17 and Dominique Ricks and Mark Dawson each with 10, mostly inside.

The win gave the 49ers a sweep of the season series with Fullerton and their sixth win in a row overall over the Titans.  It also snapped Fullerton's 15-game home-court winning streak, second longest in the school's 33-year Div. I history.

Long Beach never trailed.  After an exchange of opening baskets, the 49ers went on a 15-2 run over the first six minutes as Fullerton committed 8 turnovers and fell behind, 17-4.  

After a slow start, Brown scored 16 points in the first half and the Titans got as close as 2 points at 39-37 but the 49ers got a follow bucket from Dawson just before the halftime buzzer for a 4-cushion.

Long Beach State came out ot in the second half and gradually built the lead to as many as 20 points at 75-55 with 9:53 to play.  Fullerton got as close as 8, the last time at 86-78 with 1:32 to play.

Long Beach shot 48 percent from the floor to 41 percent for the Titans.

Both teams participate in the O’Reilly ESPNU Bracket Buster on Saturday. Fullerton travels to Wright State while the 49ers host Hawaii.