Long Beach Turns Back Northridge

James Cotton enrolled at Long Beach State this fall, declared himself a redshirt and spent night after night practicing his jump shot. Then the highly-touted 6-foot-5 guard from St. John Bosco High in Bellflower sat out his first college game last week and had second thoughts.

Tuesday night he came off the bench to score 13 points and made two clutch second-half three-pointers to help Long Beach hold off Cal State Northridge, 87-74, in the 49ers’ gym.

It was a sloppy game, at best, one that saw Long Beach blow a 54-36 second-half lead and trail, 63-62, after Northridge’s Brent Lofton scored on a layin off a pass from Ryan Martin with eight minutes remaining.

The 49ers led by four with 6:29 left, then Cotton launched the first of his two three-point shots, a 23-foot jumper. Long Beach led, 70-63, and Northridge never got closer than five afterward.

Cotton made his second three-pointer with 4:23 left for a 76-65 49er lead.

“I was anxious to take a shot and I missed my first one horribly,” Cotton said. “The coaches told me to calm down and I did.”

At times the game wasn’t pretty. Seven players fouled out and the teams combined for 49 turnovers and 60 total fouls.

It looked like Long Beach was going to run away at the outset, taking a 15-3 lead.

Long Beach made just two of its next eight field-goal attempts, however, and that helped the Matadors slowly come back. A three-point basket by Chris Yard, who finished with 23 points, cut the Long Beach lead to 24-19 with 11:05 to go. The 49ers countered with a 10-2 run, capped by a layin from Gerry Brannon. Northridge then cut the lead to six points, twice, but to no avail.