Despite a 56-point second half showing, the Long Beach State men’s basketball team’s season ended in an 85-74 National Invitational Tournament loss to Washington State on Wednesday night in Pullman, Wash.
The No. 7-seeded 49ers (22-12) used a second half surge to keep the game competitive, but the No. 2-seeded Cougars weathered the storm and will move on to play Oklahoma State in the second round of the NIT.
The Beach only had three players score in double-digits led by junior guard Casper Ware with 25 points. Junior forward T.J. Robinson added 16 points, while junior guard Greg Plater chipped in 14 points.
The 49ers dug a hole for themselves in the first half heading into the break trailing 36-18.
However, LBSU rallied behind the hot 3-point shooting of Plater and energy of junior forward Lin Chang, who scored nine points in place of a punished Robinson after he was called for a technical foul late in the second half.
The Beach opened up the first seven minutes of the second period on a 23-10 run to chip away at the deficit, 46-41, but that would be as close as it would get.
The Cougars (20-12) then woke up to stop the bleeding and slowly began to pull away. WSU went ahead by as much as 14 before a quick 8-0 run by the ‘Niners brought the deficit to 71-63 with four minutes left to play.
The Cougars continued to out-play the Niners and sealed the 11-point victory from the free throw line.
Junior guard Klay Thompson paced WSU with 25 points. Guard Faisal Aden also contributed 19 points to the Cougar attack.
Things couldn’t have gone worse for the ‘Niners after opening the game with a 4-3 edge.
WSU went on a 23-6 run over the next 12 minutes to take a comfortable 26-10 advantage with 4:50 to play until halftime. The 49ers went on a stretch of 5:30 without making a single field goal until Ware finally drove through the lane to make a layup.
LBSU finished the half shooting a sub-par 22.6 percent (7 of 31) from the field, while the Cougars shot 55.5 percent (15 of 35). The Beach also went into halftime missing all eight of their 3-point shots, while WSU hit 2 of 9 (22.2 percent).
Robinson was called for a technical with one second left until halftime for hanging on the rim after a fastbreak dunk.
LBSU head coach Dan Monson punished Robinson for showboating by sitting him out for the first four minutes of the second half despite having 10 of The Beach’s 18 points.
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