The Beach saw their six-game winning streak end with an 84–68 loss to Cal State Northridge at The Walter Pyramid on Saturday.
Before the game began, senior guard Marcus Tsohonis was celebrated for scoring a career total of 1,000 points for his five-year career.
The 16-point conference loss drops The Beach’s season record to 9–5 and 1–1 in the Big West.
“I’m disappointed, but it’s early. Two games into the league,” head coach Dan Monson said about the loss. “We can’t panic; we got to get better. The things were not good at, [CSUN] really exposed.”
CSUN’s strong offensive outing led to five players finishing in double figures. Junior guard Dionte Bostick scored a game-high 21 points and junior forward Keonte Jones’ 18 points led the way for the Matadors.
A challenging first half with The Beach shooting 1-for-11 from three-point range, intensified the pressure on their offense. Long Beach State scored 10-of-12 free throws and kept Long Beach afloat in the scoring margin in the first half despite struggles shooting.
CSUN secured a late 6-0 run and ended the first half with a 43-37 advantage. The first half saw 13 lead changes and 11 ties but a late push from CSUN altered the momentum going into the second half.
A 16-6 run to open up the first five minutes of the second half gave the Matadors their biggest lead of the night at 17 points, putting the urgency back on The Beach to fight back.
The struggles from behind the arc carried over from the first half for Long Beach, going 1-for-11 from three in the second half as they finished just 2-for-22 (9.1%) overall from deep.
Marcus Tsohonis would drive in the basket but crashed into The Walter Pyramid floor and looked at the referee for a foul call for Long Beach State. Tsohonis was commended for scoring 1,000 career points; he scored 17 points, two assists and three rebounds against CSUN. Photo credit: Samuel Chacko
“I thought we panicked,” Monson said of their 3-point woes. “We were trying to get 10 points back with one 3-pointer.”
The Beach failed to reclaim their lead in the second half as the Matadors maintained a double-digit advantage to the final buzzer. CSUN’s executed game plan and Long Beach’s inconsistent shooting thwarted their chances to regain any momentum.
The Beach shot 36.4% overall from the field on 24-for-66 attempts, compared to 48.4% on 30-for-62 attempts from CSUN.
Cleaning up their defense was a point of emphasis from Monson surrounding The Beach’s loss, surrendering 84 points and 44 of those points in the paint.
“You give up 84 points; you’re going to have trouble winning,” Monson said. “We’ve gotten away gotten away with winning some games by outscoring people and I think you get a false security that you can do that with everybody.”
Junior forward Lassina Traore and Tsohonis were the only Beach players to score in double figures, emphasizing their lackluster performance on offense.
Tsohonis finished with a team-high 17 points on 6-for-15 shooting from the field.
Lassina, who scored had a strong first half with nine points, took zero shot attempts in the second half and ended the game with nine points and six rebounds.
“For Lassina Traore to not get a shot in the second half. We just panicked and abandoned the game plan,” Monson said.
The biggest cheer from the Pyramid crowd came in the second half when CSUN missed back-to-back free throws, giving everyone in attendance a free chicken sandwich from Chick-fil-A.
The Beach will look to bounce back in their next matchup on Jan. 4 at 7 p.m. as they face the 2-6 Cal Poly Pomona Broncos on the road at Kellogg Arena.