New Mexico beats Long Beach State, 75-68

By Chris Foster

March 15, 2012 12 AM PT

Reporting from Portland, Ore. -- The scene in Long Beach State’s locker room was similar to those in living rooms across the country.

The 49ers were slumped in chairs watching the NCAA tournament on television. They had gone from tournament participants to spectators all too quickly for their liking.

Still fresh was New Mexico’s 75-68 victory at the Rose Garden on Thursday that sent the Lobos into the third round against Louisville on Saturday.

“What else am I going to do, sit here and be depressed?” senior forward Eugene Phelps said. “When we got here, we had big dreams. None of us came here to lose in the first [game]. It hurts a whole lot.”

The painful moments played out in the final minute, when the fifth-seeded Lobos (28-6) made five of six free throws to send some 49ers into the off-season and end the college careers of others.

It was a game of wills. New Mexico guard Kendall Williams enforced his. Long Beach senior guard Casper Ware couldn’t answer.

Williams scored seven of the Lobos’ points in an 11-5 run that turned a two-point Long Beach lead into a 70-66 New Mexico lead with 1:25 left.

Ware — the Big West Conference player of the year, who “carried us,” Coach Dan Monson said — missed his last five shots, as well as the front end of a one-and-one with New Mexico leading, 62-61.

“We had a pretty good game plan for Cas,” Williams said. But, he acknowledged, “a little bit was just luck, him missing some shots down the stretch.”

Ware scored 17 points and had seven assists but made only five of 19 shots. Monson took the blame, saying he was unable to get Ware rest in the second half.

Ware was having none of that.

Huddled in his locker stall, he said, “I’m just sitting here thinking about what I could have done, what I should have done, to help the team.”

Staring almost blankly at the TV, Ware said, “This feels like high school, when we lost our last playoff game, knowing you can’t go back and do it all over again.”

Ware, Phelps, Larry Anderson and T.J. Robinson were Monson’s first recruiting class after he arrived at Long Beach in 2007. The four had chased the NCAA tournament for four years, finally getting there this season, only to have it become March Sadness too quickly.

“I probably won’t realize it’s over until Monday comes and there is no practice, “Anderson. “It’s surreal.”

The 49ers (25-9) might have gone further had Anderson, their second-leading scorer, not sprained his right knee on March 3. He scored five points in 17 minutes. But even with Anderson hobbling, the 12th-seeded 49ers seemed almost New Mexico’s equal.

“We must be the worst No. 5 seed because that was definitely the best 12 seed,” Lobos Coach Steve Alford said.

The two teams certainly preferred a helter-skelter style from the start. All that was missing was the blacktop and five guys on the side calling “Next.”

It wasn’t always pretty. The 49ers turned the ball over on their first five possessions and the Lobos tried to keep pace. New Mexico led, 33-29, at halftime.

Said Monson: “I felt good about saying good-bye [to the seniors]. We did it here in the NCAA tournament.”

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