Long Beach State gives UC Santa Barbara a scare
The one thing the Long Beach State men’s basketball team wants now is not available to them. More games. Ninth-seeded Long Beach gave top-seeded UC Santa Barbara a huge scare in a Big West Tournament quarterfinal game on Thursday afternoon in Las Vegas, pushing the Gauchos harder than anyone else this season in a 95-87 loss at Mandalay Bay.
Long Beach ends its season 6-12, having lost 12 games to the pandemic and several players to seasonending injuries. As a capper for the season’s theme, forward Joe Hampton was hit in the back of the legs by two players while chasing a loose ball, ending his season 90 seconds into the game.
It didn’t end the game. Long Beach came back from double-digit margins several times. LBSU trailed by as much as 17 in the second half but a from-the-gut 15-6 run got them within four with two minutes left.
Long Beach trailed 91-87 with 28 seconds left when Isaiah Washington was called for a flagrant foul when he clipped the chin of Ajari Sanna on his descent from a jump. That gave the Gauchos (20-4) two free throws and possession, ending the comeback.
UCSB will face fourthseeded UC Davis, which defeated fifth-seeded Cal State Bakersfield on a lastsecond layup, in a semifinal today at 6 p.m.
Long Beach posted a 22-point rout of eighthseeded Cal State Northridge in the first round and pushed rival UC Irvine in a game last weekend. Six of LBSU’s losses in conference play were by three points or less (three in overtime), with the common denominator being an ever-changing lineup and the lack of practice time because of nearly 60 days in quarantine.
“When Joe went out with a serious injury, we were shook,” LBSU coach Dan Monson said. “But it’s been a season of being shook. We never got into game shape. We feel like we’re at midseason, about 70 percent of where we need to be.
“The problem is the season is over. We just ran out of time.”
Senior Colin Slater matched his career high with 20 points to lead Long Beach. Freshman Jadon Jones had 18, Chance Hunter had 16, Jordan Roberts had 13 and senior Isaiah Washington just missed a triple-double with 13 points, 10 assists and nine rebounds.
UCSB had three players with 20 points or more: Josh Pierre-Louis had a career-high 24 on 9-for-10 shooting, Big West Player of the Year JaQuori McLaughlin had 22 and Amadou Sow had 20 to go with nine rebounds. The Gauchos shot 50 percent and made 26 of 32 free-throw attempts.
“That was a gut punch,” Slater said of the Hampton injury. “He was in pain but with tears in his eyes he said ‘I want to play.’ It took us a while to get together.
“It’s really been that way all season. We’ve had different players in each game, different lineups, but in essence, we were together trying to win and put ourselves in a position to win. Everyone had a lot of heart.”