The Long Beach State men’s basketball team was offensively routed by the University of San Francisco Thursday night, 107-62 at War Memorial Gym.
The Beach could not withstand the Dons’ razor sharp shooting from beyond the arch, as the Dons converted 18 of 34 three-pointers (53%) as a team.
Senior guard Isaiah Washington and junior guard Michael Carter III had a team-high of 11 points, while junior guard Chance Hunter contributed eight boards. Turnovers (12) and missed free throws (7) proved to be the Beach’s kryptonite, as they carelessly continued to surrender the ball over to the Dons.
After starting off the game with two straight buckets by forward Joe Hampton and guard Isaiah Washington, the Dons went on to score 13 straight unanswered points.
The Beach went on a small run of their own after that to close out the gap and make it a 15-10 ball game. Following a media timeout, the Dons came out firing as they built a 23-14 run at 8:21.
Come halftime, the Dons were already starting to pull away as they headed into the half up by 19.
The Beach’s offensive woes continued after halftime, as they trailed by as much as 40 late in the second half.
The Dons began dismantling the Beach during the second half, scoring more points than the Beach did the entire game following multiple three-point conversions. San Francisco redshirt junior Damari Milstead led the Dons with a team-high of 24 points.
The Beach could not seem to hold onto any momentum following multiple missed shot attempts throughout the course of the contest. In the paint, the Beach was defensively bullied by the Dons as they only scored 22 inside.
Shooting poorly throughout the course of the game, the Beach took 64 shots and only converted 19 (30%). Additionally, they shot 13 three-point shots and only made 4 (31%).
Meanwhile, the Dons shot a collective 58% from the field.
The Dons also outmanned the Beach in rebounds, grabbing 48 while the Beach only grabbed 26. Unlike the Dons, the Beach was plagued not being able to turn rebounds into second chance points, which combined with a lack of defense, made for a long night for Beach basketball.
The Beach returns to action Tuesday against University of California, Los Angeles at Pauley Pavillion at 6 p.m.
Jacob Powers, sports editor, contributed to this story.