It was a game they maybe could have won, and Long Beach State’s effort was a lot more consistent than it was in their first 76 Classic showdown against West Virginia, but the result was the same as they fell 87-79 to the Clemson Tigers.

Eugene Phelps, T.J. Robinson and Casper Ware all had phenomenal games, as Robinson and Ware set new career-highs for scoring—Robinson in particular stood out as dominant against an elite program, scoring 25 points and grabbing 15 boards.  Aside from a great stat-line (20 points and 10 assists), Ware’s greatest contribution was as what his coach referred to as a “one man press break.”  He only committed four turnovers in 39 minutes of running the point against the Tigers’ backcourt press.  Phelps also posted a double double with ten boards and 12 points, and impressed his coach with the way he continued to battle even after a rough start.

“Casper, T.J. and Gene were some of the best athletes on the floor,” said Long Beach coach Dan Monson after the game.  “But there wasn’t enough help for them.”

With Steph Gilling playing pretty well (12 points on 4-9 three-point shooting) and Greg Plater doing the same, it’s pretty obvious he’s referring to his fourth sophomore, Larry Anderson.  The Niners’ leader on the court both emotionally and statistically, Anderson has more than struggled at the Classic; in 59 minutes over two games, he’s 0-8 from the field, with six points and twelve turnovers.  Given that he came into the tournament averaging 18 a game, it’s no wonder his coach is upset.

“Yesterday was a little understandable,” said Monson, referring to West Virginia’s style of defense, “But this was open court, it was a Larry Anderson game.”  Monson speculated that there was a snowball effect on his confidence from the West Virginia game, and said Anderson will have to work it out.  “You can’t fake confidence—he’s gotta play his way through it.  But he’s got one rebound, and Plater has five—that’s unacceptable.  His activity level has to improve for him to play his way through it.”

Monson has consistently referred to how thin the margin of error is when playing high-caliber teams, and his team did their best to blow through that in one five minute stretch of the first half, when Phelps, then Anderson, then Anderson, then Robinson, then Ware all missed easy lay-ins.  Clemson went cold during that period, and if Long Beach had taken some points out of that stretch, the game may have gone differently; the same can be said, of course, for their free throw shooting.  Once again they did a great job drawing fouls (going into the bonus with 9:26 left in the first half and five minutes into the second) but a poor job at the line—when you go 20-34 from the charity stripe and miss seven layups in a game, it’s easy for coaches and players to wonder what could have been.

After a little run, the Tigers took a four-point lead into halftime, and quickly pulled away in the second, scoring five points in the first thirty seconds, and taking an 11-point lead in the first minute.  Long Beach chipped away to bring it within one point at 61-60, but at that point, according to Monson, “We ran out of gas a little bit.”  He leaned heavily on his starters, with Plater getting his usual starter-esque minutes with 22.  Aside from those six players?  A total of three minutes off the bench, two for Richardson and one for Fleming.

Whether he finds help in his other starters (Anderson) or more players off the bench, Monson pointed out, “You’re not going to beat Clemson with three guys.” 

Monson seemed much more pleased with his team’s effort in the eight-point defeat, but says he’d told his team, “These [neutral court games] are the ones you gotta try to steal.  Texas at Texas, Duke at Duke is a different story.”

It’s not Texas at Texas or Duke at Duke, but the 49ers will play UCLA in the ACC on Sunday, at 11:30am.