Long Beach State men’s basketball found a way to defeat California State University Northridge on Saturday, by a score of 71-64.
The match was moved to The Gold Mine due to leakage at the Walter Pyramid.
“You need to be mentally ready this week. We don’t know how you know, there’s 100% chance of rain and the pyramids got some issues,” head coach Dan Monson said. ”We got to be able to play anytime, anywhere, we don’t know what time of day or who you’re playing and we got to use that as a positive.”
There were a total of 6 lead changes from the two teams only coming from the first half before The Beach took control of the second half.
Lassina Traore led the game in total points scoring 18, going 7-11 from the field, and totaling six rebounds. Traore has 15 double-doubles so far this season and is two games away from tying the program record for most double-doubles in a single season.
Aboubacar Traore had an impact in rebounding throughout the game as he led the entire match with 12 rebounds and was two assists away from a triple-double.
The Matadors tested The Beach in the last six minutes of play as they had a 10-0 run. They got the game as close as 64-62 after trailing in the game by 10 points.
“Credit to Northridge, they just looked like they were at home, they got very, very comfortable and they made a lot of big shots and really tested us,” Monson said. “Our team executed good down the stretch when we needed to.”
The Matadors made 42% of their points from the field going 24-57 and 11-28 from the three-point line converting 39%. Meanwhile, The Beach shot 26-44 from the field making 59% of its shots and only hitting on four out of 10 three-point attempts.
The Beach has two games remaining in the regular season playing one last home game on Thursday, Mar. 2 at The Walter Pyramid as they take on CSU Bakersfield. LBSU finishes off the regular season at UC Davis before heading to Henderson, Nevada, for The Big West tournament.
“Our journey to the NCAA tournament has already started,” said Monson. “We got to win the next five games to go the NCAA Tournament.”