Season ends for UCR, Cal Baptist
From staff and wire reports
Aboubacar Traore and his Long Beach State teammates didn’t play like they’re ready to say goodbye to coach Dan Monson on Thursday night.
Traore had 12 points, 11 rebounds and 13 assists for the first triple-double in tournament history, and fourth-seeded LBSU kept its coach on the sideline for at least another game with an 86-67 victory against fifth-seeded UC Riverside in a quarterfinal game at the Big West Conference Tournament in Henderson, Nevada.
Monson announced earlier in the week that he and Long Beach State were mutually parting ways after 17 seasons, during which he became the school’s all-time winningest coach (173-172).
LBSU returned all five starters this season and was picked to finish second in the conference standings, giving hope of reaching the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2012, but a five-game losing streak to end the regular season dropped Long Beach into fifth.
LBSU (19-14) narrowly earned a bye into the quarterfinals and then wore down a UC Riverside team that played the night before, earning a spot in the semifinals against topseeded UC Irvine on Friday night.
The Highlanders (16-18), meanwhile, believe they have an even brighter future with just two seniors departing the team.
“We’re just looking to keep building,” redshirt freshman guard Barrington Hargress said. “One thing that we always talk about this year is no limits and I think that’s going to continue into next year, and I think we’re going to keep on building. We’re all going to grow physically and mentally. We’re just going to come back as a better team and keep making runs.”
Marcus Tsohonis went to the bench with his fourth foul with 13:17 left and the teams followed with their 15th and 16th lead changes of the game, but then the game tilted sharply after Riverside forward Kaleb Smith registered a threeplay with 7:54 remaining to cut it to 63-61.
The Highlanders didn’t record a field goal the rest of the way, however.
Aboubacar Traore fed Lassina Traore for a layup that capped an 8-0 run and stretched the lead to 71-61.
Vladimer Salaridze twice cut the deficit to eight with free throws, but UCR never got any closer and Long Beach eventually closed the game on a 13-2 run.
Salaridze scored 17 points off the bench for his highest scoring game in two seasons with the Highlanders. Hargress, Isaiah Moses and Smith led the starters with 12 points each.
“They just hit some big shots, kind of overpowered us there and I thought we ran out of gas a little bit,” Riverside coach Mike Magpayo said. “We were getting pretty good looks, just couldn’t get it over, and that’s what they do, they’re big and strong and they wear you out. And so I thought they wore us out a little bit down the stretch and it was a close game turned into a loss.”
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Cameron Tyson had 18 points and John Christofilis added 17 points as the No. 4-seeded Redhawks ended the Lancers’ season late Thursday in the Western Athletic Conference Tournament in Las Vegas.
Seattle played topseeded Grand Canyon in a semifinal late on Friday.
Yvan Ouedraogo finished with 15 points for No. 8-seeded CBU (16-17). Blondeau Tchoukuiengo added 11 points and seven assists for the Lancers and Hunter Goodrick had nine points and eight rebounds.
The Lancers had lost both regular season meetings with the Redhawks but only by two points in Seattle and one point at home. But that 61-60 home loss on Feb. 3 was the last game of the season for leading scorer Dominique Daniels Jr., who averaged 19.2 points per game through 21 games. CBU was 13-8 in those games and 3-9 without him, losing 10 of their last 13.
Seattle (19-13) took the lead with 10:55 left in the first half and never looked back. The Redhawks led 43-26 at halftime, with Tyson scoring 16 points. Seattle had a 16-2 run in the second half to extend a 15-point lead to 29 points. The Redhawks outscored the Lancers by seven points in the final half.