The Long Beach State 49ers escaped from Malibu with a hard-fought victory over the Pepperdine Waves on Tuesday night, overcoming a sleepy performance to take control with an 18-7 second half run sparked by sophomore guard Larry Anderson, who led the 49ers with 20 points in the 67-58 win.

With Long Beach trailing Pepperdine by two points at the 17:00 mark in the second half, Anderson scored seven straight points to give the 49ers a lead they would not relinquish.

After hitting a three-pointer on the wing, Anderson stole the ball on the next Pepperdine possession and flew down the court for a tomahawk jam, then leaked out as Casper Ware found him for another ferocious dunk over a Pepperdine defender.

The first dunk was right-handed. The second dunk was left-handed.

“I could tell it looked like the other team got down [after the dunks],” Anderson said after the game. “The momentum totally shifted in our favor.”

That was a very good thing for the 49ers, because momentum was nowhere to be found up until that point. Long Beach stumbled their way through the first half and trailed Pepperdine, 31-29. The 49ers shot just 34.8% from the field and were outrebounded 24-13 in the first half.

Long Beach was headed for similar struggles in the second half until Anderson took over. Instead, they held on to a ten-point margin the rest of the way.

Anderson notched his second straight efficient game with 20 points on 5-10 shooting, including 5 steals, 4 assists and 2 blocks. Point guard Casper Ware scored just 3 points, but was instrumental in accelerating the game’s tempo in Long Beach’s favor and contributed 6 assists and 3 steals. Forward T.J. Robinson added 15 and 10, while Greg Plater hit 3 three-pointers in the second half to keep Pepperdine at bay.

“I was really disappointed how we played most of the game,” said Long Beach head coach Dan Monson, though he did see the golden lining. “I’m proud of the second half. They dug it out and every win is a good win.”

Pepperdine’s explosive sophomore guard Keion Bell led all scorers with 21 points, but shot just 8-21 from the field. Bell had his way with an array of Long Beach perimeter defenders, and found that there was little in the way of help defense once he got into the paint. Still, he was Pepperdine’s only double-figure scorer as the Waves shot an abysmal 30.8% from the field. They also committed 18 turnovers – sometimes due to intense on-ball pressure and an improving 49er fullcourt trap, but also because Pepperdine simply lost their handle on the ball.

Simply put, Long Beach State beat a Pepperdine team that did not play very well at all.

But that didn’t stop the Waves from dominating the 49ers in the rebounding category. Pepperdine won the war on the boards, 54-33, as Long Beach struggled to maintain good rebounding position and often failed to box out their opponents, attempting to simply leap for the ball and allowing Pepperdine to out-hustle them.

“We underestimated Pepperdine’s rebounding skills,” said Anderson, before he thought again and shifted his answer. “We didn’t really execute as far as boxing out.”

Pepperdine corralled an astounding 25 offensive rebounds. Coach Monson correctly noted that some of those were due to long shot attempts that ricocheted out to the perimeter, but a vast majority were due to out-of-position 49ers who failed to put a body on their opponents. Sophomore forward Eugene Phelps was most guilty of this offense, although Robinson – despite leading the team in rebounds – also missed boxing out assignments.

“They’re a good rebounding team but we made them a great rebounding team,” said coach Monson. “Rebounding is a mindset. We had a lot of guys standing and watching. Rebounding is activity.”

Monson noted that Phelps snared 17 rebounds in a scrimmage against San Diego State a few weeks ago, and that perhaps his teammates grew accustomed to standing around and watching him. But Phelps was perhaps the most blatant offender against Pepperdine, negating his indisputable ability with mental lapses that seemed to be contagious among Long Beach State.

“I’m just really disappointed with our mindset and that’s really where this team has got to grow,” Monson said. “I think our team can be a good rebounding team. Not a great one because we’re small, but a good one. I’ve just gotta keep yelling at them.”

The gross rebounding troubles, along with visible offensive woes and trouble containing penetrating guards raise valid questions about the 49ers’ readiness to face an upcoming road schedule gauntlet that begins this Thursday with a contest against Notre Dame and their Preseason All-American forward Luke Harangody.

After two wins that each raise serious concerns about Long Beach State, are the 49ers ready for games against national contenders?

That depends on who you ask.

“No,” coach Monson said simply. “We’re not ready.”

“Once we get there, we’ll be ready,” said Anderson.

Time will tell, but the 49ers have several issues to iron out along the way. They received another questionable performance from senior shooting guard Stephan Gilling, a streaky volume shooter who made just 1-7 attempts (1-5 from three). Normally one of the team’s most hard-nosed defenders, Gilling did not have a rebound in 25 minutes and was pulled after committing a reaching foul in the backcourt. Monson refused to make eye contact with Gilling as he left the court.

In Gilling’s absence, junior guard Greg Plater took advantage of his opportunity, nailing three 3-pointers in the game’s final six minutes (though he also did not have a rebound in 21 minutes). It will be interesting to see how the shooting guard battle plays out on the road, and whether the Long Beach lineup develops a new look.

Along the way, the 49ers have a lot to learn. As the team looks to move up in the college basketball world this season, they’ll need to improve their mental abilities in order to catch up with their more-than-capable physical abilities. Defense is a good place to start.

“We get a steal and we get very greedy. We get out of position trying to get the next steal and we have to just play defense,” said Monson, who noted that the second half run that ultimately won the game was a result of sound pressure defense.

“We didn’t run a play, all we did was play defense. We have to be able to score off our defense because we’re not a great halfcourt scoring team.”

Lesson learned? Whether or not the 49ers repeat their own mistakes will determine the path their season takes.

For now, they’ll take that victory and head to South Bend, Indiana.