This was supposed to be Long Beach State’s year in basketball. The 49ers were even picked to finish first in the Big West Conference in a preseason poll, which had UC Davis finishing fifth.
Long Beach State is 6-5 in conference and tied for fourth place. UC Davis is first at 8-2.
The 49ers lost one of their top two players – forward Gabe Levin – for the season just before Big West play began. The Aggies had an incoming player alter the course of their season.
It certainly fits an adage by Long Beach coach Dan Monson.
“Yeah, I think it shows that with the mid-major level, just how vulnerable and what a small margin for error every team has,” he said Monday. “That one player emerges and it can change your season. One player gets hurt and it can change your season.”
Junior Chima Meneke of UC Davis is a transfer. The 6-foot-6 forward is averaging a team-high 15.3 and conference-high 8.7 rebounds.
“He has really given them an inside presence,” said Monson, whose team hosts UC Davis at 7 p.m. Thursday at Walter Pyramid.
To the contrary, Monson said Levin’s absence definitely has something to do with his team’s defensive struggles – especially inside. Not only was Levin the team’s leading rebounder, Monson called him its “most active inside player defensively.” The 49ers are allowing a high 81.6 points in conference play and defending the paint has been particularly rough.
In the 49ers’ 74-69 loss Saturday at Cal State Fullerton, the Titans scored 40 of their points inside. Monson has not lost hope, though.
“The good news is we know exactly what we have to do to get there,” he said. “We have to get better defensively. We just have to protect the paint better. … I really like how this team’s playing in every aspect except for keeping the ball out of the paint and being able to keep the ball in front of us.
“We have three weeks to work on that.”
He’s talking about the conference tournament, which will be March 9-11 at Honda Center.
The 49ers have also been without sophomore guard Noah Blackwell for the past four games, and he’s averaging 13.0 points in conference.
No, things have not gone Long Beach State’s way – yet.
“We still have our main goal, and that is to go out there and win three games at Honda Center,” Monson said.
Monson said he’s hopeful Blackwell will be back by then. He has a ligament issue on the bottom of the big toe of his right foot.
TRE’ COGGINS REDEEMS HIMSELF
Senior guard Tre’ Coggins of Cal State Fullerton (11-12, 5-5) had a poor night Jan. 26. Playing at rival Long Beach State, the Titans’ leading scorer had zero points on 0-of-5 shooting in 13 minutes, his team falling 76-65.
Coggins scored 22 points in Saturday’s rematch. He shot 8 of 12 from the field, 4 of 8 from deep and played 39 minutes. Sophomore teammate Khalil Ahmad scored 23 points, 19 in the second half.
“Coming into the second half, we knew that me and Khalil needed to get it going if we were going to have a chance to win,” said Coggins, whose team trailed by six at halftime. “And everybody was feeding us the ball and trusting us to do what we do.”
PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
The conference players of the week are UC Davis senior Brynton Lemar and CSUN sophomore Channon Fluker.
Lemar led first-place UC Davis to victories over CSF (74-65) and UC Riverside (77-63). He averaged 21.5 points. In the win over Fullerton, the senior guard scored 29 points, grabbed seven rebounds and had three steals.
Fluker won the award for the second consecutive week and fourth time this season. The 6-foot-4 center averaged 17.5 points and 19 rebounds in victories at UC Santa Barbara (62-55) and UC Riverside (80-77 in OT).
Contact the writer: rmorales@scng.com
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