CS Fullerton keeps BWC tourney hopes alive
Cal State Fullerton kept its postseason hopes alive with a 76-71 win over Long Beach State in a Big West Conference men's basketball game on Thursday night at the Walter Pyramid.
Fullerton (13-16, 6-11) is still stuck in 10th place in the conference standings after Cal State Bakersfield (12-17, 7-11) upset UC San Diego on Thursday night, one spot out of qualifying for the Big West tournament in Henderson, Nevada, in two weeks.
“We've got to win,” Fullerton coach Dedrique Taylor said. “I don't care what everybody else does, we've got to continue to win and put ourselves in contention. We can't hope and pray for everybody else. As long as we take care of our business, we'll be fine.”
DJ Brewton led the way with 26 points, John Mikey Square scored 17 points and shot 9 for 11 from the free-throw line and Grayson Carper
LONG BEACH >> THE SCORE
CAL STATE FULLERTON 76, LONG BEACH STATE 71
Up next: UCSB at CS Fullerton, Saturday, 6p.m.; LBSU at UC Irvine, Saturday, 7 p.m., ESPN+
scored 12 points off the bench on 4 for 8 from 3-point range for the Titans, who have three regular-season games remaining.
Long Beach (18-11, 10-7) is still comfortably in fourth place, one game behind UC Davis and 1 1/2 games in front of Cal State Northridge. UC San Diego is not eligible for postseason play this season. LBSU hosts UC Davis in the regular-season finale, so Long Beach still has a chance to slide into third and earn the No. 2 seed for the tournament.
“We win these three and we can still finish as the second seed and get a bye, but we've got three tough games and we've got to play better than we did today,” Long Beach coach Dan Monson said.
Jadon Jones shot 5 for 12 from 3-point range and scored 23 points to lead Long Beach. AJ George scored 15 points, Lassina Traore had 12 points and 12 rebounds and Aboubacar Traore had 10 points and 11 rebounds before he was ejected with 8:47 left and Long Beach leading by three.
Both teams were missing key players.
Fullerton was without secondleading scorer Max Jones (15.5) for a fourth straight game because of a foot injury.
Long Beach was missing leading scorer Marcus Tsohonis (17.1), who missed his second consecutive game with a groin injury.
“With Marcus out and (Aboubacar) out, we had some odd lineups out there,” Monson said. “At the end of the day though, we could have survived it if we defended at the end. They were able to score after (Aboubacar) left, I think all but three times.”