Long Beach Gives Fans Going-Away Present

LONG BEACH —  Long Beach State honored its seniors with an emotional ceremony at the Pyramid before the final home game Saturday night. Then the departing group thanked the 49er fans.

Each contributed as Long Beach defeated San Jose State, 105-86, in a key Big West Conference game in front of a sellout crowd of 4,437. The victory snapped a two-game home losing streak for the 49ers, who have clinched a spot in the six-team Big West tournament.

“It was really emotional for me,” said senior forward Juaquin Hawkins, who had 10 points and four steals. “The crowd really surprised me.”

The 49ers, who improved to 16-10 and 11-6 in conference, also remained in contention for the conference title. UC Irvine (14-9, 10-5) defeated Nevada, 74-68, Saturday night to stay percentage points ahead of Long Beach in the standings.

“It was a big game for a lot of reasons,” 49er Coach Seth Greenberg said. “When you have five seniors like ours, you want to send them out the right way.”

Center Gerry Branner, guard Eric Brown and swingman Jamie Davis, usually reserves, joined Hawkins and point guard Rasul Salahuddin in the starting lineup. Salahuddin performed typically well despite playing with a broken bone in the thumb of his right hand.

Playing with his thumb wrapped in a splint, Salahuddin had 15 points, seven assists and five steals as Long Beach set a season high in scoring. It was the second time Long Beach has scored at least 100 points.

“All the players and the fans were great,” Salahuddin said. “This has been one of the best experiences of my life.”

Spartan Coach Stan Morrison, a big Salahuddin fan before the game, praised him afterward.

“I’m thoroughly impressed with him,” Morrison said. “He’s just a flat-out dynamite player. The things he does . . . just great.”

Brown scored nine of his 13 points in the first half as Long Beach shot 64.5% from the field and took control of the game with a 47-33 halftime lead. The 49ers shot 63.3% overall and never were really challenged by the Spartans (8-16, 7-9), who are battling for the final spot in the tournament.

“I was more focused than if it was a normal regular-season game at the Pyramid,” Brown said. “I wasn’t hyped or out of control or anything, I was just real focused.”

The 49ers were led in scoring by a sophomore, as guard James Cotton had 20 points on eight-of-11 shooting from the field. Cotton, who made three of four three-point attempts, gave Long Beach an 81-62 lead on a dunk with 7:11 remaining. The lead swelled to as much as 23 points and Greenberg played everyone.

Cotton leads the Big West in scoring with an average of 20 points. He said he was determined to play a strong supporting role for his senior teammates, especially since Long Beach played so poorly in a 71-61 loss to Pacific at the Pyramid on Thursday.

“We wanted to come out and play hard for them after what happened last time,” Cotton said. “We didn’t play hard against Pacific, and we didn’t want to send the seniors out like that. They deserve this.”

Forward Sam Allen led the Spartans with 23 points and center Roy Hammonds added 19. Morrison was extremely disappointed with his team, which began the game with a four-game conference winning streak.

“We seemed to play like we were intimidated or frightened,” he said. “I thought there would be considerable pressure on Long Beach because of everything surrounding Senior Night, but I thought Long Beach played brilliantly.”