STORY BY MATT SIMON
After clawing its way to an overtime victory Friday night against Cal State Bakersfield, the Long Beach State men’s basketball team found itself in an uphill battle in the series finale Saturday night at the Walter Pyramid.
With a 9-man rotation the Beach (2-3, 1-1 Big West) battled early on and took a 24-23 lead after a Joe Hampton jumper at the 9:53 mark in the first half. From that point on it was all Runners as the CSUB went on a 23-11 run to finish the half and take a 46-35 lead at the break.
“We were physically and emotionally drained,” Long Beach State coach Dan Monson said of playing without a healthy roster.. “They’re deeper than us and healthier than we are right now.”
With six players scoring in double figures, CSUB defeated the Beach 89-76.
“It’s no fun to have that happen,” Monson said. “When you have two games in a weekend, if you had your choice as a coach you’d want to lose the first and win the second one. Unfortunately, we had the highs of yesterday and the lows of today.”
After scoring 25 points Friday night, junior Michael Carter III was limited due to a sprained wrist and was held to one point in the first half.
“That was a huge factor,” Monson said of the Beach offensive struggles early on. “But we got to play through it.”
The Runners extended the lead to 19 midway through the second half and took control of the glass for the second straight night out rebounding the Beach 47-25, which led to CSUB winning the second-chance points battle 19-8.
“It was a humbling lesson for our guys,” Monson said of the Runners rebound advantage. “We had four or five guys who really had their first significant Division 1 play. It was really good for them to get a taste of what kind of fight it is when balls are on the rim.”
Senior Isaiah Washington did his best to keep LBSU within reach scoring 18 points to lead the team. Along with Washington, Trevor Irish and Joe Hampton each chipped in 14 points.
The Beach will be back in action next week when they travel to Cal State Fullerton Friday and Saturday with both games starting at 5 p.m..
