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Coach Dan Monson wants his Long Beach State men’s basketball team to be both humbled and motivated by its 72-61 loss to UC Irvine on Thursday night at Walter Pyramid.
“For me it’s motivating and it’s my job to make sure it is that for our team,” he said. “We still have our eyes on the prize, and that’s playing well in March, and I think we’re getting better… It’s also humbling that they kind of broke (under the physicality) and went off on their own a little bit.”
LBSU had plenty of open looks in the first half but went 8-for-32 from the field and trailed 41-24 at halftime. The Beach (12-8, 4-4) came in ranked as the top offensive team in the Big West, and UC Irvine (14-6, 7-1) is the top defensive team.
“Their defense dictated our offense today,” Monson said. “When teams are playing you physical you only see the shot, but on the play if you’re not balanced and not in the flow and they’re restricting where you want to go and what to you to do… they get their work done before you get the ball to get guys out of rhythm and get you into spots where they want you to shoot the ball.”
The Beach was coming off one of their best offensive outputs against Hawaii last week when they shot a season-high 56.4% from the field and 75% from 3-point range. On Thursday they shot 32.8 percent from the field and 31 percent from behind the arc.
“Everybody wanted it so bad that they kind of went off on their own and didn’t trust each other,” Monson said of his offense. “I really liked our fight but unfortunately we didn’t play very well.”
Marcus Tsohonis led LBSU with 15 points but was 3-for-13 from the floor. Lassina Traore had nine points and eight rebounds while Varick Lewis came off the bench to score nine points.
The active UC Irvine defense came up with 12 steals while forcing 18 turnovers and scoring 21 points off of those miscues. Guard Pierre Crockrell II led the Anteaters with 12 points, 11 assists and five steals. Dylan Thoerner scored 13 points and Andre Henry chipped in 12 points.
UC Irvine has won eight of the last 10 Black & Blue rivalry games against LBSU. The Anteaters are currently tied atop the Big West standings and the Beach has fallen back to fifth place.
“We still have half of the (conference schedule left) and this is a game that we need to learn from,” Monson said.
After a slow start for both teams, UC Irvine opened up a 12-5 lead thanks to consecutive 3-pointers from Henry.
LBSU cut the lead to 12-10 after Aboubacar Traore found Jadon Jones for a 3-pointer and then Jones fed Lassina Traore for a dunk. That’s as close as the Beach would get for the rest of the game.
UC Irvine responded with a 10-2 run sparked by Thoerner. While LBSU continued to struggle from the field, the Anteaters fed their big men and protected the lead by getting into the paint where they scored 32 points.
The lead got to 22 points in the second half, but the freshman Lewis came off the bench to spark a 12-2 LBSU run with about 10 minutes to play. It was 57-45 when Justin Hohn hit a jumper and a breakaway layup for UC Irvine to stem the tide. The Beach never got it to single digits down the stretch while outscoring the Anteaters 37-31 in the second half.
LBSU visits UC Riverside on Saturday.
