49ers Change Tactics in Victory : College basketball: Cal State Long Beach gets 61 points from its front line and beats Utah State, 87-72.

Patience paid off for Cal State Long Beach on Saturday night.

The 49ers, whose front line was ineffective during last week’s two-game road trip, moved the ball inside for the second consecutive game and came away with an 87-72 Big West Conference victory over visiting Utah State.

Long Beach (10-5, 4-2) got 61 points from the post area as guard Bobby Sears directed an attack that constantly challenged the Aggie front line. The result: The 49ers had the Aggies (9-5, 3-3) in foul trouble almost from the start.

Utah State’s Carlito DaSilva and Roger Daley, a reserve forward, fouled out trying to defend against center Chris Tower, who scored 23 points, and Byron Russell, who had career-highs of 24 points and 12 rebounds. Utah State committed 33 fouls and Long Beach went to the line 46 times, making 37.

“Russell is so explosive,” said 49er Coach Seth Greenberg, making his return after skipping two games because of the chicken pox. “Now we have a better perimeter defensive player out there, plus Russell. That makes us a better basketball team.”

A key to the success of the 49ers has been a change in the starting lineup, by which Russell moved into the power forward spot, replacing Frankie Edwards, and the team’s leading scorer, Lucious Harris, was shifted from guard to small forward.

At the outset, Long Beach committed three turnovers and missed its first four field goal attempts. Meanwhile, Utah State opened a 13-3 lead in the University Gymnasium on six-for-seven shooting.

But from there, save for a brief moment to open the second half, the game belonged to the 49ers. Playing some of its best basketball of the season, Long Beach erased that 10-point deficit by outscoring Utah State, 26-3, and led, 29-16, with 5:16 left in the half.

Utah State opened the second half as it did the first and erased a 10-point deficit by scoring the first 11 points of the period. A basket by guard Todd Gentry gave the Aggies a 42-41 lead with 17:37 remaining.

But Long Beach, with four points each from Tower and Russell, went on a 16-9 run that gave it the lead for good.