The 2011 Big West Conference Basketball Tournament concludes today at Honda Center in Anaheim, as the top seed Long Beach St. 49ers battles the No. 5 UC Santa Barbara Gauchos for an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament. This is a battle of this year's regular season champ against last year's regular season and tournament champ. Long Beach St., who was 14-2 in conference play during the regular season, beat UCSB in both matchups this season, by a total of 34 points.
The 49ers are looking for their first NCAA Tournament trip since 2007. They beat No. 8 UC Irvine on Thursday, then dispatched No. 7 UC Riverside last night. Long Beach St. is trying to make their Big West Tournament experience a sweep of UC schools, battling the Gauchos tonight.
The Gauchos beat Pacific 79-67 on Thursday, then beat No. 3 seed Cal State Northridge 83-63 last night. Orlando Johnson has scored 62 points in the first two rounds of the tournament, including this dunk on Thursday against Pacific:
Tonight's 5 p.m. PST game will be televised on ESPN2. For more Big West Conference Tournament news and updates, be sure to stay tuned to this StoryStream.