Previewing the Big West tourney title game

Previewing today's Big West Tournament championship game, scheduled for 8 p.m. Saturday on ESPN2:
• Long Beach State is favored by 3.5-4 points by most sports books.

• 49ers senior forward Sterling Byrd, who scored a game-high 20 points in a 77-63 semifinal win over UC Irvine, said he contacted Cal Poly (the blurb about Byrd is at the end of the story) about transferring there while he was playing at Yavapai Community College but never heard back from the Mustangs' coaching staff. "I wanted to go there. ... So, I’m really looking forward to this one. We’re all looking forward to it, because this is what we live for — playing in the NCAA Tournament."

• 49ers try to break Mustangs in Big West Tournament final
(Sports Network) The top-seeded Long Beach State 49ers and the second-seeded Cal Poly Mustangs will collide in the championship game of the Big West Tournament ...

Tonight's probable starting lineups:

LONG BEACH STATE G-20-Kevin Houston (5-10, Sr., 11.6 ppg, 4.3 apg) G-1-Kejuan Johnson (6-4, Sr., 15.4 ppg, 4.1 rpg) G-55-Aaron Nixon (6-2, Sr., 18.4 ppg, 4.8 rpg) F-15-Sterling Byrd (6-6, Sr., 14.1 ppg, 6.4 rpg) F-44-Dominique Ricks (6-6, Sr., 7.2 ppg, 6.0 rpg)

CAL POLY 0-Trae Clark (5-11, So., 9.0, 3.6 apg) 22-Tyler McGinn (6-7, Sr., 11.0, 3.3) 2-Dawin Whiten (6-3, Jr., 11.4, 2.6) 25-Derek Stockalper (6-5, Sr., 14.0, 6.9) 35-Titus Shelton (6-7, So. 9.0, 5.0) - stats as of 3/8