In a game that many looked at as an easy win for the number two ranked school overall (UCLA), LBSU’s men’s basketball team had other plans on their mind.
While The Beach would end up losing the game by a final score of 100-79, the team played a very close and competitive game. At the end of the first half, The Beach trailed the Bruins 48-45.
In Monday’s loss to UCLA, The Beach suffered from turnovers, giving up 25 overall.
LBSU Head Coach Dan Monson believed that jitters played a factor early on in last night’s game.
“Our freshmen were up there, had five turnover jitters really quick,” Monson said. “We can clean that up.”
While turnovers played a factor as to what kept The Beach out, the team was playing great offense together as guards Colin Slater and Joel Murray had scored 27 and 30 points respectively.
UCLA head coach Mick Cronin recognized how well Murray and Slater performed in last night’s game.
“I’ve got to give congratulations to Murray and Slater. Those guys played great,” Cronin said. “Good for those kids. That’s not going to ease my pain of [our] horrendous defense. You’ve got to give those guys credit.”
When discussing the first half of the game, Coach Monson said the team was playing very well but he believes the young team’s inexperience led to their downfall throughout the game.
“As the kids would say, cooking you know. They had it going and my disappointing thing is we didn’t keep feeding them,” Monson said. “When we got behind, and it was the second half, everybody tried to get us back and I’m just hoping it’s just inexperience.”
In tonight’s game, LBSU played without senior Forward Joe Hampton. Coach Monson said that Hampton was having difficulty walking this morning and was a game-time decision scratch.
Hampton is expected to receive an MRI and the team will have a better idea of where he’s at physically.
While The Beach was unable to land a victory in tonight’s matchup, Coach Monson was very proud of how his team faced UCLA.
“We played one of the best teams in the country, toe to toe for a great part, and that’s super positive, but coach’s job is not to be positive after losses,” Monson said. “It’s to look at the things we have to work on and because we don’t have time on the back for having a good half.”
LBSU’s next game will be their home opener against Utah Valley on Wednesday, November 17th in the Walter Pyramid.