49ers Finally Give New Coach Good News

LONG BEACH —  Since coming west, Wayne Morgan hasn’t had much fun.

The former Syracuse assistant took over at Long Beach State in April with high hopes, but he couldn’t seem to shake the dark cloud over the program during the exhibition season. Two key players were injured, another suspended and Long Beach played poorly in losing its two games.

Long Beach needed a big boost--and quickly.

Help arrived Monday night.

Long Beach defeated Wyoming, 79-78, in a nonconference game at the Pyramid, making Morgan a winner in his regular-season debut. Finally, Morgan had something to smile about.

“This feels absolutely great,” Morgan said. “It hasn’t been easy, and we still made some mistakes tonight, but I saw a lot we can build on. We played a good team tonight, so this was a great building block for us.”

Standout guard James Cotton missed most of the preseason with a broken rib. Cotton, though, didn’t look at all rusty, scoring a team-high 24 points. He made nine of 13 shots from the field.

“We all wanted to do this for Coach Morgan,” Cotton said. “We wanted to go out and play hard for him because of all the hard work he’s put in.”

Cotton worked especially well with his backcourt mates--Brandon Titus and Tommie Davis.

Morgan gave Titus the start and he responded with 13 points and five assists. Davis had 12 points and three assists, and sparked the 49ers’ offense by forcing the tempo with his speed.

“That’s why I came to Long Beach--to push the ball,” Davis said. “Coach Morgan has used us [Cotton, Davis and Titus] in the same lineup in practice a lot, and he told us he was going to do it tonight. It worked.”

Forward Akeli Jackson and center Brian Yankelevitz consistently made plays inside. Yankelevitz had 14 points and nine rebounds, and Jackson had 14 and seven.

Still, Long Beach gave Morgan a scare.

After trailing by 13 points in the first half, Wyoming (1-1) made a late run behind guard LaDrell Whitehead. Whitehead led his team with 28 points, and Wyoming methodically chipped away at Long Beach’s lead, which reached 13 twice in the second half.

Titus made two free throws with 41 seconds to play to give Long Beach a five-point cushion, 78-73. Cotton provided the margin of victory by making one of two free throws with 21.5 seconds remaining, giving Long Beach a 79-76 lead. An uncontested layup by Wyoming’s Jeron Roberts accounted for the game’s final points.

“Everybody knows we played horribly [in the preseason],” Titus said. “We were all so pumped tonight to get this done. I think it showed.”

In the first half, the 49ers didn’t resemble the group that bungled its way through its exhibition games recently. Long Beach shot 73.9% from the field in the half--62% overall--and took a 41-28 halftime lead.

Wyoming helped by shooting 28.1% in the half, failing to get back on defense and repeatedly missing uncontested dunks, layups and jumpers. Wyoming Coach Joby Wright lost his voice screaming at his players’ mistakes.

“You just can’t play like that and expect to win,” Wright said. “I hope we learned that you have to play a whole game, that you can’t spot a team 13 points and expect to win. You just can’t do that.”