Long Beach Catches Irvine on the Rebound

IRVINE — Saturday night’s battle of the Big West’s best showcased two teams that play very different styles of basketball and the 5,006 fans in a sold-out Bren Center were treated to an epic drama pitting finesse against athleticism.

UC Irvine, which had won five in a row, took over first place in the conference with a combination of pretty passes and sure outside shooting. Long Beach State was only a game behind thanks to its swarming defense, flying dunks and pogo-stick approach to rebounding.

At the end of regulation, no winner could be declared, but Long Beach’s domination of the boards was the difference in overtime as the 49ers pulled out a 69-65 victory.

The Anteaters (10-7 overall and 7-3 in conference) had the advantage at the end of regulation when the 49ers’ athleticism proved to be a liability. With the score tied, 63-63, and 30 seconds left in regulation, Long Beach forward Akeli Jackson leaped and stole an inbound pass away from Irvine’s Michael Tate. He passed to Juaquin Hawkins, who drove in for a layup, but Marcus Johnson flew in, slammed home a follow dunk and was called for basket interference.

Irvine point guard Raimonds Miglinieks, who had 13 assists, drove through the lane and passed back out to Kevin Simmons as the final seconds ticked off. But Simmons, who had a game-high 15 points, missed a three-pointer and it turned out to be the Anteaters’ last hurrah.

“It shouldn’t have depended on that shot,” Simmons said. “If we just get a couple of more rebounds earlier in the game, we would have won it in regulation.”

Neither team scored a basket for the first 3 1/2 minutes of overtime until James Cotton’s layup gave the 49ers (12-7, 7-3) a 65-63 edge. With 30 seconds left, Cotton came up with a huge offensive rebound after Rasul Salahuddin, who led Long Beach with 14 points, missed a 15-foot jumper. Then, with 15.6 seconds left, Salahuddin made one free throw and missed the second, but Jackson swooped in to snatch another key offensive rebound. That led to a free throw by Hawkins that put the 49ers ahead, 67-63.

“That was a slugfest, just two teams that went at each other and played with tremendous passion,” Long Beach Coach Seth Greenberg said. “It was not an artistic game by any means. I’m sure, [Irvine Coach] Rod [Baker] and I are going to look at the film and see many ways we could have been more effective. It just came down to our ability to defend in the end.”

The 49ers’ ability to rebound their missed shots--and there were plenty because they shot just 37% from the floor--is what kept them in the game long enough to win in overtime, however. The key statistic on this night: Long Beach had 22 offensive rebounds.

“They are a very athletic team, certainly,” Baker said, “and the difference tonight was that we couldn’t rebound the ball in those last two situations when we really needed a rebound.”

Brian Keefe, the sophomore guard who was the hero of Thursday night’s victory over UC Santa Barbara when he scored a career-high 29 points, felt he was the goat this time, although very few in the building knew it.

“I guess both of those rebounds were my fault,” said Keefe, who scored 14 points. “They both were in my area, anyway. We started the year doing a really great job rebounding, but maybe we’ve lost our focus on rebounding, maybe we’ve been concentrating too much on other parts of the game.

“Long Beach is very athletic, but you can beat athleticism with technique if you box out. I guess we got caught up in trying to out-jump them and that just isn’t going to work against them.”