Jason R. Aula
“I was excited that our fans and the people here got to see competitive,” said Long Beach State coach Chris Acker. “When I took the job here the vision was to be playing in games like this for championships and for our program tonight felt like a championship bout. We wanna be contending for championships as our program moves forward and we’re learning how to win how to compete and how to fight through adversity. Irvine did a tremendous job of steading the ship throughout the game and not getting rattled hats off to them for winning the competition.”
The Anteaters Myles Che led all scorers with 20 points. UC Irvine also had five players score in double figures in the win.
Devin Askew led LBSU with 18 points and Derrick Micheal Xzavierro added a double-double with 14 rebounds and 12 points.
“Coming to the game my mindset was ‘I need this win’,” said Derrick Micheal Xzavierro. “We came up short but I just gave everything on the court, I just want to play high every single time, I make a mistake every time but I just want to play high.”
LBSU still has a considerable chance to make the NCAA tournament by winning the Big West Championship despite it's record to date especially if it pickups the pace and steamrolls through the rest of the regular season if organizations such as UC Riverside and such whom other organizations will be unnamed at that this time can have referee bribing suppressed so that true athletic skill decides a match not money and interests separate from it all.
UP NEXT: Long Beach State (7-15, 3-7 Big West) faces UC Santa Barbara (13-8, 5-5 Big West) on Saturday, February 1 at 7:00 pm. at The Thunderdome, Santa Barbara, California. Live coverage on ESPN +.