Long Beach State Showing a Spark

The Utah State and UC Irvine basketball teams appear to be battling down to the wire for the Big West Conference regular-season championship. With that comes the No. 1 seeding in the conference tournament, April 7-9, at the Anaheim Convention Center.

Either team could play Long Beach State in the first round. That might not be the matchup that the Aggies or Anteaters--teams that need to win the tournament to get to the NCAA tournament--are looking for as the 49ers appear to have gotten their act together after being adrift most of the season.

Long Beach (10-16 overall, 6-9 in the Big West) is in a tie for seventh place, but the 49ers have won four of their last six games. They have pushed Utah State and Irvine to the limit, losing by four and seven points to the Aggies and by six points to the Anteaters.

Irvine ends the regular season Feb. 28 at the Pyramid.

“If we can keep growing, I think we can be a threat,” Long Beach Coach Wayne Morgan said.

The 49ers appear to be playing with a sense of purpose after Morgan announced he would step down after the season. They are coming off an impressive road sweep of Pacific and Cal State Northridge last week.

Forward Travis Reed, who has averaged over 20 points the last six games, doesn’t rule out a 49er run in the tournament.

“There’s no dominant team in the conference but there are some good teams,” Reed said. “Irvine just lost to Pacific so it’s wide open.”

Northridge Coach Bobby Braswell sees something different in the 49ers.

“They love their coach and I’m sure they’re rallying behind him,” Braswell said.

Cody Pearson is a walk-on at Long Beach, but the freshman guard is showing he can do a lot more than take up a seat at the end of the bench. Pearson has been a spark for the 49ers after originally being slated to redshirt.

The former Sherman Oaks Notre Dame High player has provided tenacious defense and energy to a team desperate for a lift.

In the 49ers’ 73-60 victory against Northridge, Pearson had two points and three rebounds in 14 minutes. But the points came on a thunderous dunk off a missed shot.

He also drew a charging call on Curtis Slaughter to help blunt the Matadors’ rally and nearly got into a scrap with Markus Carr after a scramble for a loose ball.

“I’m sure it was a sweet win for Cody,” Morgan said, “especially since we were in his old neighborhood.”

Three weeks ago, Northridge was riding a five-game winning streak that propelled it to the top of the Big West. Since then, the Matadors have dropped five in a row and fallen into a tie for fifth place.

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Braswell has called on his veterans, saying that only freshman swingman Ian Boylan has been giving the kind of effort he has wanted.

“We finished the first round [of league] 7-2 and we were feeling good about ourselves,” Braswell said. “You get a little complacent.... Everyone in the conference has elevated their game to a different level and we have not responded.”

Carr, the senior point guard, has an excuse with a sprained big toe that makes it difficult to push off.

“I try not to think about it,” said Carr, who has missed 20 of 24 shots in his last two games. “I just go out and play.

“I don’t want to make any excuses. We play well for most of the games but there have been times when our intensity level goes down.”

Braswell dismissed any notion that he might make a move for the Long Beach State position once Morgan ends his tenure.

When asked about his interest, the sixth-year Northridge coach said, “None. Not at all.”

Braswell is a former Long Beach assistant (1989-92) who was a candidate for the 49er job when Morgan was hired to succeed Seth Greenberg in 1996.

Northridge Athletic Director Dick Dull said he has not been contacted by Long Beach officials about Braswell.

Former Long Beach standout Ed Ratleff has expressed an interest in the position.

Ratleff, a former All-American and U.S. Olympian, was an assistant coach in the early 1980s under Tex Winter and Ron Palmer and remains popular in the community.

“I don’t know how [Athletic Director] Bill Shumard is looking at it,” Ratleff said. “I don’t know who he is looking for but I think I’d be the perfect person.”

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USC finished seventh in the TRW Regional Challenge last week at Palos Verdes Golf Course, the highest finish among local teams.

Junior Mikaela Parmlid shot a five-over-par 218 for the three rounds to finish in a tie for sixth. Junior Becky Lucidi finished 10th.

Led by freshman Yvonne Choe and sophomore Crystal Shearer, UCLA finished eighth, four shots behind the Trojans. Junior Katharine Hull’s 14th-place showing helped Pepperdine finish 10th.

Arizona All-American Lorena Ochoa won the tournament with a seven-under 206.

Tulsa, the nation’s No. 2-ranked team, won the team title.

Eric Stephens

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UC Irvine’s final game of its season-opening baseball homestand was rained out Sunday, but the Anteaters (8-5) are feeling good about their start. Irvine, fielding a team for the first time since 1992, travels to Tucson this weekend to play Arizona.

It will be an interesting series in many ways. Arizona Coach Andy Lopez, who led Pepperdine to the national title in 1992, was at Florida and was the frontrunner for the Irvine coaching job, but he pulled himself out of consideration after interviewing for the position.

Dan Guerrero, Irvine’s athletic director and a friend of Lopez’s, then hired USC assistant John Savage, one of the top recruiters and pitching coaches in the nation.

Lopez’s interview with Irvine did not endear him to Florida’s athletic administrators and he was fired after last season. He was hired a month later by Arizona and has the Wildcats off to an 11-4 start.

Gary Klein