STORY BY MATT SIMON
After a 6-day break, the Long Beach State men’s basketball team welcomed former Big West foe Pacific to Walter Pyramid on Saturday afternoon.
The Beach (3-7) took a 2-0 lead on a Michael Carter III putback dunk, but it was all Pacific after that as the Tigers took advantage of a cold shooting night from LBSU on their way to a 65-46 victory.
Colin Slater led LBSU with a career-high 20 points, but the Tigers (9-3) were able to hold LBSU to a season-low 31.5 clip from the field and held Chance Hunter scoreless, frustrating the guard whenever he got the ball.
“You have to give Pacific credit,” LBSU coach Dan Monson said. “They’ve done that to everyone’s leading scorer. That’s what they do and we just didn’t handle it well, he didn’t handle it well.”
Jahlil Tripp and Gary Chivichyan led the way for Pacific scoring 15 and 13 points, respectively.
The Beach cut the lead to 13-12 at the 10:38 mark, but went into the half trailing the Tigers 33-22.
Freshman Joshua Morgan scored nine points and went 4-for-4 from the field. With the long break, LBSU wasn’t as crisp as they’ve been to start the season and it showed at practice during the week.
“Our practice wasn’t the best the past couple of days,” Morgan said. “I would say we weren’t locked in completely and that can’t happen going into a game, especially a game like this where they’re going to challenge us mentally and physically. We have to be playing and practicing at 100 percent.”
The Beach will get another long break until their next game when they travel up the 405 to take on USC on Sunday Nov. 15.
