LONG BEACH — Upon being honored in his last game at the Walter Pyramid, Long Beach State senior forward James Ennis announced to the crowd that The Beach is going to make a run through the NCAA Tournament.
Long Beach State got its first taste of what the competition in the Big Dance might be like, Friday night. And despite Ennis' confidence, a 68-60 loss to visiting Stephen F. Austin in the BracketBusters series left a bad taste in the 49ers mouths.
"As a coach and a competitor, losing and losing bad, there's no way to sit here and say that was a good loss," said Long Beach head coach Dan Monson. "I've never believed in good losses."
The Lumberjacks (23-3, 13-2, who currently share a lead in the Southland Conference, made nearly every open shot while The Beach (17-10, 13-2), the Big West Conference's top team, struggled on both ends of the court.
"We were humbled there, in that a team came into our house and they were more physical than us, they really frustrated us defensively," Monson said.
It was the final BracketBuster game for both teams, as the series is coming to an end after an 11-season run. The ESPN-sponsored event that puts non-conference mid-major hopefuls against one another late in the season, will continue tomorrow with the rest of the Big West teams all on the road in their own BracketBuster matchups.
The series has been credited as spurring runs that eventually led to Cinderella showings in March. Most notably, George Mason and Davidson have credited their BracketBuster wins as being influential in their late-season stretches that propelled them to Final Four appearances in 2006 and 2008.
Last season, the 49ers went had won 12 in a row and were fast becoming the trendy pick to bust some actual brackets in March when they traveled to Omaha, Neb., to take on another trendy mid-major in Creighton in a BracketBuster matchup. The 49ers fell 81-79 in a nationally-televised thriller. Long Beach then went on to win six of its last seven games and the Big West Championship.
Monson said that BracketBuster game was key in the 49ers' run through the Big West Tournament.
"The Creighton game last year was really good for us. That pushed us, we said we've got to get better, we've got to get going," Monson said.
However, for teams that clearly aren't headed toward the NCAA Tournament, the game can be more hassle than it's worth.
"I see both sides of it. My first year here when we were 300th RPI and got shipped to New Mexico (State) and they were 100th RPI and we got beat by 30, there was no TV, no one cares in Las Cruces, N.M., I thought, why are we doing this?" Monson said.
Long Beach's final BracketBuster game, another nationally-televised affair, was a game that gave The Beach a reality check.
"One of the positives is you step out and see somebody new and they expose different things than league does and it brings you back to earth a little," Monson said. "We crashed back to earth."
SFA, the top defensive team in Division I coming into the game, held the 49ers to 44 percent shooting. Mike Caffey scored a career-high 24 points but the point guard was credited with none of the 49ers five assists.
"We had five assists and James had three of them," Monson said. "We weren't trusting each other offensively."
The Lumberjacks shot a scorching 56.5 percent from the field and 50 percent from the perimeter. Three SFA players made six or more field goals, with Antonio Bostick going 8-for-14 with 21 points. The Lumberjacks spread the floor and moved the ball, with 19 assists and 12 steals.
The Lumberjacks pulled ahead early to a 20-11 lead before The Beach stormed back.
Caffey hit a three to spur a Long Beach rally, and then followed up when he banked a jumper from the baseline, making the score 20-16.
A few minutes later, Caffey again took a rebound coast-to-coast, wove around his defender and was upended as he floated one in from the lane, putting The Beach back by just two, 24-22 with 3:08 left in the half.
Long Beach was up by two in the final seconds of the half but a Bostick triple put the ‘Jacks up 31-30 at the half.
The game continued to be tight early in the second half, and the 49ers took back the lead twice in the early minutes. But a three by Desmond Haymon put SFA up 40-36 at 16:18 and the 49ers would not regain the lead.
"We have a lot of work to do outside of just the Big West," said guard Peter Pappageorge. "I think we need to take this game and get better to make our end goal and beat some of those teams."
