The562’s coverage of Long Beach State athletics for the 2023-24 season is sponsored by Marilyn Bohl.
The562’s coverage of Long Beach State Basketball is sponsored by CSULB Distinguished Alumnus Nelson Farris.
The562’s coverage of Long Beach State men’s basketball for the 2024-25 season is sponsored by Arline & Mike Walter.
A positive change of direction in a team’s season doesn’t always come in the form of a win, and the Long Beach State men’s basketball matchup against No. 1 UC Irvine on Thursday night was the perfect example. The Beach hosted the Anteaters in their return to the Walter Pyramid following construction repairs and put up a tough fight in front of the 2,000+ fans in attendance in an 80-75 overtime loss.
The Beach entered the game as 15-point underdogs but found themselves with a lead for more than half of the game time. LBSU even held its biggest lead of 10 points with just six minutes left and had a chance to win it at the end of regulation before turning the ball over on their final possession before OT.
“I was excited that our fans and the people here got to see competitive (basketball),” said first-year LBSU 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.”
It was a refreshing sight to see shots fall and second chance opportunities for LBSU, a pair of struggles that the Beach had faced in their previous four-game losing streak. LBSU knocked down a trio of threes to open the first half including a pair from Kam Martin, meanwhile Derrick Michael Xzavierro held down the paint with 14 rebounds and three blocks.
“Coming to the game my mindset was ‘I need this win’,” said Xzavierro, who finished with 12 points. “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.”
“It was just a constant pursuit,” Acker added of the rebounding. The Beach out-rebounded Irvine 39-36. “…I was so proud of DMX because he’s getting so much better. He’s finishing around the rim better, he’s much more balanced, but to me he has the potential to be the best rebounder in this league…I couldn’t be more proud of the effort he put out there and we’re just asking our other guys to follow suit and continue to move in that direction.”
The Beach led for the majority of the opening half until a pair of back-to-back threes from Irvine’s Devin Tillis and Myles Che. The two contributed to a 10-0 UC Irvine run meanwhile LBSU shot an empty 0/11 from the field during that span.
Long Beach State replied in the final minutes of the half with a 7-0 run to come within two points at the break, and kept things going with a 9-0 run early in the second half. The Beach found its biggest lead of 10 points with 5:46 remaining in regulation before a flurry of Irvine threes to equalize the game within its final minute.
“They continued to turn the corner and make shots,” Acker said of Irvine. “Our bigs were in front of the ball too long, and (they) stepped in there and made some big threes. So with experience, you learn that you can’t have a second of a lapse when you’re playing against really good players. And for them, really good players stepped in and made shots.”
The Anteaters shot an efficient 55% (11/20) from three and carried it into overtime with a pair of threes to add some cushion to their lead. Devin Tillis knocked down a huge three for Irvine before a pair of missed threes in opportunities to tie the game from LBSU. UC Irvine outscored the Beach 12-7 in OT.
Myles Che finished the game with a game-high 20 points for Irvine while Tillis had 18. Justin Hohn added 13 points including two three-pointers and six assists while Bent Leuchten had 12.
Long Beach State received its normal dose of production from Devin Askew who finished with a team-high 18 points and eight assists. TJ Wainwright and Kam Martin both added 14, meanwhile Xzavierro had 12 and Austin Johnson had 10.
“When you have a lot of experience on the floor, I think Irvine has like 4 or 5 seniors, they’ve been through a lot of battles together. And when you look at the statistics across the country we have the lowest rate of continuity because we don’t have a lot of guys that have played together for long periods of time,” Acker said. “I think that’s what showed up in the last five minutes…I think the one thing that I saw tonight that I was most proud of is that we did fight, but also theres some inconsistencies there that we have to continue to work through.”
The Beach will look ahead to its matchup at UC Santa Barbra on Saturday before returning to the Walter Pyramid to host UC Davis and CSUN next week.
