The562’s coverage of Long Beach State athletics for the 2024-25 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.
Another narrow defeat at home that extended their losing streak to eight games hasn’t deterred Long Beach State men’s basketball from staying positive. The Beach fell to Cal State Northridge 81-80 on Saturday at Walter Pyramid but first-year coach Chris Acker wanted to highlight the growth of his team and not the final score.
“We are consumed with improvement,” Acker said. “Obviously it’s about the wins and losses, but in year one these guys are figuring out how to be depended on, and I’m really proud they’re fighting night in and night out. We’re going to get there. I get chills thinking about how much better we’ve gotten with the attention to detail.”
This loss comes on the heels of two straight overtime losses at home for LBSU (7-18, 3-10) and leaves the Beach in danger of missing the Big West Conference tournament next month.
“We don’t like losing so we’re always fighting hard to get the win,” said LBSU guard Devin Askew, who had a team-high 20 points and career-high 11 assists to go with seven rebounds. “Unfortunately it hasn’t been happening. We’ve been making mistakes that are controllable and if we fix those we’ll put ourselves in a better position. I think we can use our frustration in a positive way and get at it in practice and get better.”
The 13 turnovers and 11-for-20 perforce at the free throw line hampered LBSU down the stretch.
CSUN (17-7, 9-4) got a game-high 25 points from Marcus Adams Jr. while forward Keonte Jones had a monster double-double with 19 points and 14 rebounds. The Matadors out rebounded LBSU 39-33 and had 14 offensive rebounds that resulted in 14 second chance points.
LBSU’s TJ Wainwright had a solid shooting night going 6-for-13 from the field and 3-for-6 from 3-point range his way to 16 points, all of which came in the second half. Fellow guard Kam Marin was active on both ends of the floor and scored 10 points with five rebounds.
The first half was neck-and-neck with Askew and Adams trading early buckets, but it was Adams who gave the visitors a 16-9 lead while LBSU went about three minutes without scoring. Askew answered with a nice feed to Richardson and a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 18-14 at the 12 minute mark.
Richardson stayed aggressive down low and his strong move on the black and dunk to tie it 18-18. The freshman seven-footer finished with eight points off the bench.
“Chris is one of those guys who needs confidence,” Acker said of Richardson. “When he has success (his teammates) celebrate it. When I got on him turning the ball over, (his teammates) were right there telling him that it’s alright. To me that’s the mark of a team trending in the right direction. I’m really proud of what we’re building and establishing and I what it for these guys so bad.”
Varick Lewis and Andrew Nagy hit 3-pointers to tie the game 28-28, but CSUN retook the lead by getting to the basket and making their free throws. The first half saw 22 fouls and 43 in the game.
The Matadors led 43-41 at halftime and used a 10-0 run at the beginning of the second half to take its largest lead of the game of 11 points.
Askew, Wainwright and Martin led LBSU back with unselfish play and quality open jump shots. A Wainwright 3-pointer with about seven minutes to play cut the lead to 69-65, but he was called for a technical foul for punching the ball after the whistle. The resulting CSUN free throws pushed the lead back to 10 points with six minutes left.
CSUN slowed the game down to protect its lead until back-to-back 3’s from Martin and Wainwright made it 81-75 with under a minute to play. Both shots were created by great passes from Askew, who had his third double-double in the last six games. LBSU was 11-for-24 from 3-point range.
“(Askew) is playing 40 minutes a game and I never feel comfortable taking him out,” Acker said. “He got everybody going tonight. He played like a professional tonight. Those things are way we’re going to make a run here at the end of the year and why we’re going to continue to fight regardless of the score.”
The Matadors led 81-78 with 20 seconds left when the Beach forced a turnover and Askew brought the ball down. Acker didn’t have a timeout and let his star try to get to the rim. CSUN collapsed its defense and Askew had to settle for a baseline jumper that rimmed out as the final second ticked off the clock.
In a strange turn of events, the CSUN bench was called for a technical foul after the final whistle and Askew made the ultimately pointless free throws to make the final score 81-80.
“What we’re doing right now is for the future,” Acker said in the postgame press conference. “Tonights game, the areas I talked about that we improved in, those are for the future. I’m yelling less at these guys about where they need to be defensively. Now we’re almost close enough to understanding where they need to be offensively. Everything we do right now bodes well for our future. We’ve got really good players in this program.
“They’re learning how to play together,” Acker continued. “The most important thing about the future is that these guys have never been depended on and never been asked to do the things I’m asking them to do right now. The future is bright because these guys are figuring it out year one. We’re right there (with top Big West teams) after going down by 30 (at CSUN last month) and then being within one tonight. But we are defiantly locked in on making this conference tournament and making a run. We want to be playing our best basketball as this season comes to an end.”
LBSU visits Hawai’i on Thursday.
