Blog Archives - 49er Hoops

Long Beach State comes up short with NCAA Tournament berth at stake

2/26/2022

Jason R. Aula

Photo credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

LOS ANGELES, California — The Anteaters defeated LBSU, 77-72 Saturday night in a key Big West Conference game. Long Beach State (16-11, 10-3 Big West Conference) holds the Big West Conference lead after the loss to UC Irvine (14-8, 8-4 Big West Conference) at the Bren Events Center. CSU Fullerton is half a game behind in the Big West Conference standings.

Long Beach State was down by 23 points at the halfway point. UC Irvine outrebounded LBSU and shot over 50 percent during the first half. With under eight minutes to go in the second half Long Beach State went on a furious run to come within one point during the final minute of the game.

LBSU had four players scoring in double figures with the best all-around performance credited to Jadon Jones with 11 points and nine rebounds plus two steals and two blocks. Colin Slater scored 16 points with seven assists.

Dawson Baker led the Anteaters scoring 18 points and grabbed four rebounds.

UP NEXT: Long Beach State faces UC Davis (12-8, 5-4 Big West Conference) next Thursday night at 7pm in The Walter Pyramid with coverage on ESPN+.

Long Beach State breaks 100 in win over UC San Diego

2/25/2022

Jason R. Aula

(Photo credit: Orlando Ramirez, USA TODAY Sports )

LOS ANGELES, California — Long Beach State (16-10, 10-2 Big West Conference) remains atop the Big West Conference after a considerably dominate 103-87, win over UC San Diego (11-15, 0-0 Big West Conference) at the pyramid. LBSU was down 55-57 at the half, with 11 3-pointers by UCSD and 70% shooting for Long Beach State. To start the second half Long Beach State went on a 12-0 run and led by as many as 21 points.

Long Beach State only played eight team members due to the UCSD Tritons new membership with the Big West Conference. The Tritons do play a full schedule, but the wins and losses to do not count for or against UCSD at this time.

Joel Murray had a team high for Long Beach State with, 27 points and the freshman Tobias Rotegaard had a career-high, adding 17 points.

Jake Kosakowski put up a career-high 26 points for the Tritons.

UP NEXT: Long Beach State goes on the road against the UC Irvine Anteaters (13-8, 7-4 Big West Conference) this Saturday night at 9pm in the Bren Events Center with coverage on ESPNU.

Long Beach State bested on the road by UC Santa Barbara

2/19/2022

Jason R. Aula

(UCSB guard, Josh Pierre-Louis. Photo credit: Erick Madrid, The Santa Barbara Independent)

LOS ANGELES, California — LBSU has again become a victim to referees making a frivolous number of foul calls not favoring Long Beach State (15-10, 10-2 Big West Conference) in the 84-71 loss, much like the incident earlier this season during the match against Loyola Marymount. Long Beach State was upset by UCSB (12-10, 5-6 Big West Conference) and had its 11-game winning streak come to an end. The longest program winning streak is 12 wins, which occurred during the 2011-2012 season.

Ajay Mitchell scored a team high 20 points for UCSB and Josh Pierre-Louis added 17 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds.

Colin Slater led Long Beach State with a career high, 28 points and Aboubacar Traore put up 14 points and pulled 10 boards.

LBSU was outrebounded 38 to 29 and only had 16 assists in contrast to the 21 for the Gauchos.

UP NEXT: Long Beach State faces UC San Diego (11-14, 0-0 Big West Conference) next Thursday night at 7pm in The Walter Pyramid with coverage form ESPN+.

Long Beach State routes Cal State Northridge, 72-59

2/18/2022

Jason R. Aula

(Photo by John Fajardo, LBSU Athletics)

LOS ANGELES, California — Long Beach State (15-9, 10-1 Big West Conference) has now won 11 games in a row. Through maintenance of the Big West Conference lead LBSU continues to appear to be on the path to the 2022 NCAA Tournament.

Long Beach State had nearly perfect free throw shooting with 19 turnovers most late in the game, in the 72-59 win at the Matadome in Northridge, California before 515 in attendance. LBSU lead CSUN (7-17, 3-8 Big West Conference) at the half 40-29, during the second half Long Beach State led by as many as 20 points.

Jadon Jones led all scorers for Long Beach State with 25 points and Joel Murray added 18 points.

Fedelis Okereke led the Matadors with 14 points and 14 rebounds.

UP NEXT: Long Beach State faces UC Santa Barbara (11-10, 3-5 Big West Conference) this Saturday night at 7pm at The Thunderdome with coverage form ESPN+.

Long Beach State maintains Big West Conference lead

2/10/2022

Jason R. Aula

Photo credit: KHON2 News

LOS ANGELES, California — Long Beach State (14-8, 9-1 Big West Conference) extends its win streak to 10 games and holds the Big West Conference lead. LBSU lost its only Big West Conference game to Hawaii (11-8, 6-3 Big West Conference) on January 8, which is now on a three-game losing streak. Hawaii is scheduled for a nationally televised home game against Cal State Fullerton (14-7, 7-2 Big West Conference), which will be shown on ESPN2 at 7 p.m. PST on Saturday.

Long Beach State closed out Hawaii in the second half with a late 8-0 run, in a 73-66 win at SImpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center. LBSU lead at the half 28-23 due to tough full court defense that forced 11 first turnovers for Hawaii. During the second half Hawaii did take the lead 53-52 for just over one minute and only had three turnovers.

Aboubacar Traore led Long Beach State with 18 points just one short of his career high and Colin Slater put up 16 points. Overall, LBSU had four scorers in double digits.

Noel Coleman led all scorers for the Rainbow Warriors with 22 points.

UP NEXT: Long Beach State faces CSUN (6-16, 2-7 Big West Conference) next Thursday night at The Matadome.

LBSU dominates Big West Conference rival Fullerton, 71-61

2/8/2022

Jason R. Aula

(Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)

LOS ANGELES, California — Long Beach State (13-9, 9-1 Big West Conference) defeated Cal State Fullerton (14-7, 7-2 Big West Conference) 71-61 at The Walter Pyramid. LBSU has now won nine games in a row and appears to be surging to a March Madness appearance.

Colin Slater led all scorers with 19 points with four players scoring in double digits for LBSU.

Tray Maddox Jr. and Jalen Harris scored 15 points each for the Titans.

Long Beach State blows past Cal Poly 78-65

2/6/2022

Jason R. Aula

(Photo by John Fajardo, LBSU Athletics)

LOS ANGELES, California — Cal Poly lost to Long Beach State on the road at The Walter Pyramid Saturday afternoon 78-65. Cal Poly turned the ball over 23 times well LBSU (12-9, 8-1 Big West Conference) only turned the ball over seven times. Long Beach State had a bad shooting percentage but still blew out Cal Poly due to a high rate of fouls.

The Mustangs led at the half by one point. Kobe Sanders led Cal Poly with 22 points and Alimamy Koroma had a double-double with 15 points plus 12 boards.

Joel Murray led all scorers with 25 points and Colin Slater added 20 points for LBSU which has now won eight games in a row.

The score was tied seven times with four lead changes before a crowd of 1062.

Slater scored 23 in Long Beach State's win over CSU Bakersfield

2/6/2022

Jason R. Aula

LOS ANGELES, California — Long Beach State (11-9, 6-1 Big West Conference) defeated CSU Bakersfield (6-10, 1-6 Big West Conference) 74-65 at The Walter Pyramid. LBSU is on a seven-game winning streak with four team members scoring in double digits. The Big West Conference lead is now shared three ways.

“At the beginning of the year, we were getting scored on a lot and we felt like, ‘OK, we’ve got to figure this out,’” Slater said. Colin Slater led all scorers with 23 points and Aboucar Traore had a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds. “He’s kind of our X-factor,” Monson said of Traore. “Kind of our stabilizer on both ends of the floor.”

Kaleb Higgins led the Roadrunners with 21 points and Elder-Davis chipped in 16 points with a dominate offense demonstration during the first half. “We just didn’t dictate on the defensive end in the first half,” LBSU coach Dan Monson said. “We didn’t play bad defense, but we didn’t disrupt like this team has to.”

Coach Monson's tough non-conference schedule is yielding dividends that will result in a March Madness appearance. “We’re so small, you just can’t play position defense,” Monson said. “We’ve got to be out there getting some deflections, get them out of dry run and get them having to make plays on the move, and we did that a little bit better in the second half.”