LB State holds off UCI for win
At the beginning of the season, Long Beach State men’s basketball coach Dan Monson said his team was approach- ing games with a singular mindset of outscoring its opponents.
But Saturday afternoon, after squeaking past rival UC Irvine, 73-67, at the Walter Pyramid – a game in which LBSU responded after squandering a 13-point second-half lead and fell behind with 3:50 left – Monson praised his players for finding a different way, as Long Beach won its fourth straight and third consecutive Big West Conference game.
“This team didn’t know how to win a game in the preseason if they didn’t outscore somebody,” said Monson, whose team improved to 8-9 overall and 3-1 in conference play. “That’s the only way we were winning games – is if everybody was on.”
Not everybody was on Saturday. In fact, Jadon Jones and Colin Slater – who Monson called his top two shooters – combined to go 4 for 20 from the field. Multiple scoring droughts stretching minutes long helped let UCI (6-7, 1-3) back in the game.
In a game that featured 11 lead changes, UCI took a 59-58 lead when Collin Welp capped a 10-0 run with a tipin with 3:50 left, but LBSU’s defense and timely offensive rebounds helped sealed the win down the stretch. Slater came alive late with a corner 3-pointer followed by a driving layup that put LBSU ahead for good, 66-64, with less than two minutes left.
“Colin, he wasn’t hitting all game,” said Joel Murray, who led Long Beach with 24 points. “He hit that big three in the corner. Just trusting your teammates, knowing they’re going to hit that big shot. We’re trusting in each other and that’s what ultimately won us the game.”
LBSU scored seven unanswered points after the score was tied 64-64, and won the game by doing the small things – forcing two turnovers, grabbing two offensive rebounds and blocking a shot in the final two minutes. Long Beach scored seven of its final nine points at the free-throw line, where it finished 25 for 30.
“Teams that win leagues, teams that are championship-caliber teams — you’ve got to find different ways to win basketball games and I think they’re starting to trust that and find different ways,” said Monson, whose team played without senior captain Drew Cobb (COVID-19 protocols).
Long Beach led 30-29 at halftime in a back-and-forth first half. Both teams struggled shooting the ball at under 37% in the first half.
Austin Johnson had eight of the first 13 points for UCI, and he paced the Anteaters at halftime as their lone double-digit scorer. Murray had 14 points for LBSU by halftime, including a 3-pointer late in the first half that broke a nearly fiveminute scoring drought.
Long Beach went on a 13-2 run at the start of the second half to build a double-digit lead.
Aboubacar Traore, a high-energy freshman wing from the Ivory Coast who is nicknamed “Kadir,” continued to impress for Long Beach, notching career highs of 19 points (on 6-for-7 shooting) and four blocked shots to go with his seven rebounds and three steals.