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After a pair of disappointing Big West losses on the road, Long Beach State men’s basketball bounced back with a 79-71 win over Hawaii on Thursday night at Walter Pyramid.
A busy zone defense and smart shot selection helped LBSU play its best first half of the year. The Beach went 18-for-24 from the field with 14 assists and one turnover while coming up with five steals and holding Hawaii to 6-for-22 from the 3-point range. They led 45-28 at halftime.
“I love the mindset at the start of the game, I love how we defended with activity… but to see our offensive numbers and not put that game away shows (we are still on) a mission to solve our biggest problem,” LBSU coach Dan Monson said of his defense.
LBSU led for over 37 minutes of the game, and led by 22 points with nine minutes to play, but then reverted to the passive defending that has them ranked last in conference team defense.
Hawaii cut the lead to 11 with five minutes left by attacking the basket. The Rainbow Warriors went 11-for-14 from the free throw line in the second half.
With 3:37 on the clock, a key 3-pointer from Jadon Jones made it 77-61 and then the Beach just held on while Hawaii missed open looks from 3-point range. The Rainbow Warriors finished 12-for-38 from behind the arc.
LBSU guard Marcus Tsohonis scored a team-high 20 points to go with four assists while Aboubacar Traore filled the stat sheet with 11 points, eight rebounds, sevens assists and a steal. Jones was 8-for-8 from the field and 3-for-3 from the 3-point range while scoring 19 points, dishing out four assists and grabbing four steals.
The Beach finished with only seven turnovers and 23 assists on 31 made baskets. AJ George had five of those assists while grabbing six rebounds. Lassina Traore helped LBSU outscore Hawaii 34-18 in the paint while chipping in 13 points and six rebounds.
Monson was happy with the team win, but was still frustrated by his team’s defensive effort down the stretch.
“This did give us some hope that (the team) got the message and now we have to get better (defensively) and more consistent and be tougher minded in the second half,” Monson said.
The win moves LBSU (12-7, 4-3) into a tie for fifth place in the conference standings with key home games against Big West leaders UC Irvine (Jan. 25th) and UC San Diego (3rd Feb.) on the horizon.
“We’ll go as far as our defense takes us,” Monson added. “We can score on anyone in the country, especially when you’re defending because it comes so easy off your defense.”
Jones agreed with his coach and delivered that message with consecutive transition dunks towards the end of the first half that were set up by George and Messiah Thompson steals.
“We looked efficient on offense) because we were prioritizing defense,” Jones said.
The crowd of nearly 2,000 fans (including the entire Dirtbags baseball team there to promote their upcoming season) were loudest when Tsohonis fed Jones for a highlight alley-oop slam.
“I like to think of it as you getting rewarded with those types of plays by playing defense,” Jones said of the dunks. “They were great plays, high energy plays and I get excited by plays like that but our goal is to be a defensive team. So the more steals we get the more dunks we get. That’s just my mindset.”
That mindset led to the first bucket of the game— a Jones steal and Tsohonis fast-break finish— and then a string of midrange jumpers from all five starters built the lead.
Tsohonis had a particularly sharp start to the game considering he was “unavailable” for the loss at UC Santa Barbara on Saturday. He was 5-for-7 from the field in the first half.
“Marcus is better when he’s on a short leash,” Monson said. “When he makes the right play and plays the right way I think he might be one of the best players in the league offensively. Sometimes it helps him to slow down and just not be so comfortable. The thing I’m most impressed by is that he was actually in a stance and dictating (on defense) because I mean he had four or five deflections at halftime.”
The Beach zone defense forced Hawaii to miss nine straight 3-point attempts in the first half.
Hawaii forward Justin McKoy was 6-for-11 from behind the arc for a game-high 22 points, but only scored three points in the second half. Guards Jovon McClanahan and Noel Coleman were both averaging double-digit points per game coming into Thursday night, and were limited to a combined six points.
