BEACH HOOP News



November 11, 1998

Long Beach St. defeats Next Level Stars 107-90 for Exhibition Victory

In front of a sparce crowd of appx 1,200 people last night at the Pyramid, Long Beach State defeated the Next Level All Stars in an exhibition game. The game marked the debut of several new faces for the 49er's and it became evident early on that the latest edition of Beach Hoop will be very different from teams of the past two seasons.

Long Beach fielded a starting line-up of Tommie Davis (PG), Rock Lloyd (SG), Antrone Lee (SF), Richie Smalls (PF) and Mate Millisa (C). D'Cean was the first man off the bench with substantial minutes also going to Ron Johnson, Ian Milley. Allen Gomez, Jared Frey, and James Delone saw limited action as well. Grant Stone did not suit up for the game.

The Next Level All Stars fielded a team that included former Big West players Sam Crawford (New Mexico St.'96), Denmark Reid (New Mexico St. '98), and Kevin Rice (Utah St '98).

The game was fairly fast paced, the Beach started the game with a 23-4 run, however the NLA countered with a 17-4 run, to make the score 27-21 midway through the 1st half. The Beach then went on another sustained run to enter halftime with a 15-16 pt lead. The second half patterned the 1st, with the NLA never able to get closer than 8pts. The Beach was finally able to pull away for an eventual 107-90 victory.

Five players scored in double figures for the Beach, with Rock Lloyd leading the way with 26 pts, many coming on twisting drives to the basket, several were spectacular. This guy will remind many of James Cotton, only stronger.

However, the best player on the court was NOT Rock, it was Tommie Davis who was voted the LBPT player of the game for his 18pt, 8 assist performance. Tommie clearly held his own and perhaps dominated Sam Crawford, who was the BW's best point guard a few years ago. If Tommie can duplicate this performance throughout the season, hold your breath, The Beach will have the BEST backcourt in the Big West. That includes the backcourts from Cal Poly as well as Idaho. Unbelievable.

Mate will be a solid contributor, the jury is still out, as to whether he will be a dominating force. Richie has a nice touch from 10' in and will grab at least 8 boards per game. The year at PG will help Antrone shut down other SF's, Ron Johnson looked tentative in the 1st half, but picked up his game towards the end. Ian Milley looked like Ian Milley, hopefully he will improve as the season progresses.

Overall it was exciting to see a Beach team that will not any difficulty scoring points, or at the very least a shortage of guys willing and wanting to take the shot. This team looked faster, more confident, and will be definitely be much more difficult to defend. It may be a pretty good year. What a difference one win makes.