The562’s coverage of Long Beach State athletics for the 2022-23 season is sponsored by Marilyn Bohl.
Marcus Tsohonis may have been wearing a protective plastic mask for the first time in his collegiate career, but he clearly saw what his team needed against UC Davis on Saturday at Walter Pyramid.
Tsohonis scored a team-high 21 points, dished out four assists and controlled the ball down the stretch in a 75-72 win over the visiting Aggies. It is the fourth consecutive Big West Conference win for the Beach (12-10, 6-4) which is a season best.
“It’s definitely different, I’ve never used a mask,” said Tsohonis, who needed nine stitches between his eyes after a fluke accident in practice that caused him to miss a game Thursday. “It was just figuring it out by adjusting it, cutting off the ends, but the nose is pretty big so I couldn’t really figure that out… our trainer (Jarrod Spanjer) set me up.”
“(The mask is) another defender because the concept of defense is to distract the offense and that’s a distraction,” LBSU coach Dan Monson added. “I’m proud of Marcus, he really struggled with the mask yesterday (in practice) and I had to close my eyes and quit watching him try to figure it out shooting. But I felt like he played that game to win.”
The entire game was tight with 15 ties and 13 lead changes, and LBSU led 73-72 with less than 20 seconds left in regulation. Tsohonis took the ball at the top of the key and started dribbling down the shot clock while surveying the floor. Monson noticed that UC Davis had gone to man defense to confuse LBSU after playing zone all game.
“You have to trust your guys in that situation,” Monson said of not calling a timeout. “We had the court spaced and (Tone Hunter) was in the corner (in front of our bench) and everyone was telling him to cut.”
Hunter took the advice and found himself alone under the bucket where Tsohonis fed him for the easy layup. UC Davis took a timeout with eight seconds left, then Ty Johnson came down and got off a possible game-tying 3-pointer at the buzzer but it hit the rim and stayed out. There also wasn’t a foul called despite some contact.
Johnson scored a game-high 32 points for UC Davis while fellow Aggies guard Elijah Pepper scored 28 points.
Lassina Traore was a force inside for LBSU where he scored 15 points and pulled down 15 rebounds. He came into the game ranked top five in the NCAA with 12 double doubles. He’s had a double double in four consecutive games. Hunter chipped in 11 points, three assists and a pair of steals. Aboubacar Traore finished with 10 points, seven rebounds and four assists.
“I thought it was a great win for us,” Monson said. “(UC Davis) really had us frustrated (in the zone defense) and it’s the first time our guys were able to overcome something like that. I kept telling our guys this day was coming because we haven’t shot well from the perimeter, and for us to be able to survive that with 40 minutes of work against the zone will make us better in the future.”
The Beach was able to speed the game up early and got out in front 13-7 on an alley-oop dunk from Hunter to A. Traore.
Pepper drilled a pair of 3-pointers to tie it up 18-18 at the 12 minute timeout. The Aggies made seven of their 14 attempts from 3-point range in the first half, but then went 1-for-9 in the second half.
LBSU took a 38-37 lead into halftime, but UC Davis and Johnson charged out to a 57-53 lead with about 11 minutes left.
L. Traore got his team back on track with a few points in the paint and great defense at the other end. LBSU outscored the visitors 44-22 in the paint and out-rebounded the Aggies 40-31.
Tsohonis then scored four consecutive buckets as LBSU took a slight advantage while shutting down Pepper on the defensive end. Pepper, the Aggies leading scorer, only had nine points in the second half. The Beach stopped UC Davis from scoring on their final six possessions of the game.
“I think it was his best defensive game he’s had since he’s been here,” Monson said of Tsohonis. “He’s more than capable, he’s always been known as an offensive player, and today he was both. He made big shots for us and he did a great job on (Pepper) at the end of the game.”
LBSU is now sixth in the Big West and visits Fullerton on Thursday before hosting UC Irvine on Saturday.
“Obviously winning and picking up games is going to boost everyone’s confidence, but I’m telling some of the guys to keep level headed,” Tsohonis said. “That’s going to help us get to our goal.”
