Blog Archives - 49er Hoops

Undermanned Long Beach State defeats UC Davis, 70-63

1/30/2022

Jason R. Aula

Coach Monson Photo credit: Seattle Times

LOS ANGELES, California — Long Beach State's big three Joel Murray, Colin Slater, and Jordan Roberts combined for 44 points and 15 rebounds. Long Beach State (10-9, 6-1 Big West Conference) has now won six games in a row overall and Big West Conference play. Coach Monson has LBSU geared for an NCAA tournament run, the program's last appearance during Coach Monson's tenure was during March Madness 2012.

Joel Murray led Long Beach State with 19 points, shooting 9 of 11 from the charity strike. The Aggies were tied at halftime; however Long Beach State's stellar defense yielded another Big West Conference win.

Joe Hampton and Drew Cobb were unavailable for the match due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Ezra Manjon led all scorers with 26 points for UC Davis (8-7, 2-3 Big West Conference).

UP NEXT: Long Beach State faces CSU Bakersfield Thursday night at The Walter Pyramid.

Long Beach State holds off UC Riverside 68-62

1/27/2022

Jason R. Aula

Long Beach State guard Aboubacar Traore. (Photo by Milka Soko, Press-Telegram)

LOS ANGELES, California — Long Beach State (9-9, 5-1 Big West Conference) defeated UC Riverside 68-62 on the road. Aboubacar Traore pulled down 23 rebounds and Joel Murray had five steals for Long Beach State which, has now won five straight, the longest streak of the 2021-2022 campaign.

The UC Riverside Highlanders (10-6, 4-2 Big West Conference) scored 31 points during the second half, the score at halftime was 31-38. Zyon Pullin lead all scorers with a career high 23 points and six rebounds.

Five players scored in double digits for Long Beach State with the team's leading scorer, Colin Slater putting up 16 points.

Long Beach State defeats UC Irvine Basketball 73-67

1/22/2022

Jason R. Aula

Long Beach State guard Joel Murray. (Photo by, Kyusung Gong, Press-Telegram )

LOS ANGELES, California — Long Beach State (8-9, 4-1 Big West Conference) is on a four-game win streak, including the win over UC Irvine (6-7, 1-3 Big West Conference) at The Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, Cali., which was the Big West Game of the Week.

Joel Murray led Long Beach State with 24 points and four rebounds. "Colin, he wasn’t hitting all game,” said Joel Murray, “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.” Aboubacar Traore scored 19 points, pulled seven rebounds, and blocked four shots. Colin Slater added 11 points.

Collin Welp scored 20 points and grabbed 11 rebounds for the Anteaters.

Murray leads LBSU sprint over UC San Diego, 87-69

1/19/2022

Jason R. Aula

Photo credit: Derrick Tuskan, via ucsdtritions.com

LOS ANGELES, California — Long Beach State had a dominate offensive game with five players scoring in double digits. Colin Slater and Joel Murray lead all scorers with 20 points each to force the Triton's fourth consecutive loss.

Long Beach State (7-9, 3-1 Big West Conference) defeated UC San Diego (8-9, 0-0 Conference), 87-69 at Rymac Arena. LBSU's defense and potent 3-point shooting resulted in the large victory against UC San Diego.

Toni Rocak nearly had a double-double with 18 points and nine rebounds for UC San Diego.

Long Beach State defeats UCSB

1/15/2022

Jason R. Aula

Photo credit: Long Beach State Athletics

LOS ANGELES, California — Long Beach State (5-9, 2-1 Big West) ended a three-game losing streak, against UCSB (7-6, 0-1 Big West) at The Walter Pyramid. The Guachos came off a two-week unscheduled break due to the health pandemic. Fatigue related to COVID-19 scheduling irregularities may explain Long Beach State's dominate 39-20 run during the second half.

Defense was the key for Long Beach State in the 65-58 win against UCSB which, was the Guacho's Big West Conference opener. Long Beach State has maintained a robust schedule despite COVID-19 challenges through matches against AP poll rated programs such as UCLA and USC.

Aboubacar Traore led Long Beach State with 17 points and 7 rebounds.

Long Beach State routes Cal State Northridge, 71-55

1/15/2022

Jason R. Aula

(Photo credit: Long Beach State Athletics)

LOS ANGELES, California — Long Beach State (6-9, 1-1 Big West Conference) is on a two game winning streak, defeated Cal State Northridge (5-10, 1-2 Big West Conference), 71-55 at The Walter Pyramid.

“To win with our defense on Thursday the way we did and to be able to come back 48 hours later and have that same mindset, that same energy, it was very gratifying as a coach,” Long Beach State coach Dan Monson said. “Thursday proved to them that if they have to, they can do it. Today proves to them that they wanted to do it. It’s a big step.”
“We grew a lot this week. I think we’re heading in the right direction. There’s teams in this league that are better than us, but we showed ourselves this week that we can get there.”

CSUN had 17 turnovers and was not able to score 60 points due to tough defense. Atin Wright led the Cal State Northridge Matadors with 14 points.

Hawaii edges out Long Beach State 72-67

1/8/2022

Jason R. Aula

Photo credit: John Fajardo, Long Beach State Athletics

LOS ANGELES, California — Hawaii (5-5) defeated Long Beach State (4-9) in the Big West Conference opener at the Walter Pyramid on Saturday night.

Noel Coleman had a team high 22 points for Hawaii with six made shots from behind the arc. Long Beach State had solid team play, however Hawaii seemed to get extra help from the referees which, repelled Long Beach State from a clean victory.

Colin Slater led Long Beach State with 16 points and five rebounds.

This past Thursday, Long Beach State fell to No. 2 UCLA by double digits for the second time this season.

Long Beach State appears to be on the way to the NCAA March Madness tournament this season considering performance and schedule strength under Coach Monson's sage leadership.

Long Beach St. dominates Westcliff 90-64

1/5/2022

Jason R. Aula

(Photo by John Fajardo, Long Beach State University Athletics)

LOS ANGELES, California — Long Beach State University (4-7) routed Westcliff at the Walter Pyramid on Wednesday night. Westcliff University is a private for-profit university in Irvine, California and plays in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) as a member of the California Pacific Conference.

Colin Slater had a team high 23 points and Joel Murray chipped in 13 points for the Beach. Jordan Roberts and Joe Hampton scored 11 points each as well.

Joshua Harrison led the Westcliff University Warriors with 17 points and five steals.

UP NEXT: Long Beach State faces No. 5 UCLA tomorrow afternoon.

(Credit: Westcliff University Athletics)

Long Beach State University adds game against UCLA

1/4/2022

Jason R. Aula

(Credit: UCLA Athletics)

LOS ANGELES, California — The Long Beach State men’s basketball team added a Thursday afternoon game against UCLA at Pauly Pavilion. The Thursday afternoon game is not open to fans as usual.

Only families of team members with UCLA and LBSU will be allowed to attend the match not originally scheduled due to COVID-19. The Omicron variant of the coronavirus has caused the Beach to miss six games since Dec. 12.

Long Beach State University came up short during the second half at Pauley Pavilion, 79-100, on Nov. 15. Long Beach State's last game played was Dec. 12 and with UCLA not playing a game in over a month, anything can happen Thursday afternoon at Pauley Pavilion.