But the visitors (11-9, 6-2 in conference) received a career-high 20 points from 6-foot-7 freshman T.J. Robinson and a crucial eight-point, nine-rebound contribution from 6-10 senior Eric Freeman to help deny the Anteaters in front of a revved-up crowd of 2,917 at the Bren Events Center.
Robinson also hauled in 10 rebounds, helping the 49ers post a 41-28 rebounding advantage, including 14 offensive boards and a 15-8 edge on second-chance points.
“We couldn’t match them on the boards and we couldn’t match their size inside,” UCI Coach Pat Douglass said.
UCI (7-14, 4-4), which dropped its second straight conference home game, missed 16 of its first 19 field-goal tries to create an early deficit.
Still, with the help of 6-5 freshman center Eric Wise (19 points, 15 in the first half, and a team-high 10 rebounds), as well as some faulty second-half free-throw shooting by the 49ers, the Anteaters were in it until the final seconds.
UCI closed to within 49-48 on two Michael Hunter free throws with 1:19 left, after Long Beach had built a 58-47 cushion on a Freeman three-pointer with 5:03 remaining.
But 5-9 freshman point guard Casper Ware slipped past the aggressive, over-playing defense of Brett Lauer to get a layup that helped Long Beach maintain control with 69 seconds left.
A three-pointer by Patrick Rembert with four seconds left pulled the hosts within 65-63, but Long Beach guard Stephan Gilling made both of his double-bonus foul shots with two seconds left to preserve the win and the conference lead for the 49ers, who had lost two straight.
In addition to Robinson and Freeman, Gilling and Larry Anderson chipped in 11 points apiece, while Ware finished with 10.
Long Beach made just 20 of 33 free-throw tries (60.6%), including just 13 of 23 after intermission (56.5%). But it plucked eight of its 21 second-half rebounds off the offensive glass to thwart some generally solid UCI defense.
