LONG BEACH, Calif. --- Long Beach State built a 38-20 halftime lead and led by as many as 31 points in the second half in handing UC Irvine a 77-50 defeat in a Big West Conference game at the Walter Pyramid Wednesday night.
Casper Ware led the 49ers (22-7, 15-0 Big West) with 16 points, four assists and four steals. Eugene Phelps had 11 points while T.J. Robinson recorded 10 points and 12 rebounds for his 15th double-double of the season.
Freshman center Mike Best led UCI (11-18, 6-9) with 11 points, hitting 5 of 10 shots, and he added a career-high eight rebounds plus two blocked shots.
Michael Wilder had nine points, five rebounds, three steals and two assists while Chris McNealy added eight points. Adam Folker registered six points and a team-high nine boards, and Derick Flowers also had six points. Daman Starring had a team-high three assists. Marcus Bradley pulled down a career-high five rebounds in 12 reserve minutes.
The 'Eaters hit just 7 of 30 shots for 23.3 percent in the first half The 49ers, who outscored UCI 20-6 off turnovers in the game, surged ahead at 68-37 on a layup from Edis Dervisevic with 6:14 remaining in the contest.
Best scored 10 of his points for the 'Eaters in the second half when he was 5 of 9 from the field.
UCI, which had 17 turnovers in the game, shot a season-low 31.7 percent from the floor, but was edged just 44-43 on the boards.
Long Beach State shot 47.6 percent from the field and recorded 15 steals.
"I was disappointed that we didn't come out ready to play, and I will take responsibility for that," UCI head coach Russell Turner said. "That is unusual for this team…we usually play hard. We didn't play good defense in the first half and gave up a bunch of layups.
"Even though we didn't compete well, I thought Mike Best busted his tail out there tonight.
"Hopefully, this performance will give us the impetus to play hard at Riverside Saturday night."
UCI ends regular-season play at UC Riverside Saturday at 5:00 p.m. as the final seeding for next week's Big West Tournament at the Honda Center will not be finalized until Saturday's conference games are complete.
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