In a game filled with passionate cheers from Long Beach State’s fraternities and sororities on Greek Life Night, the loudest roars turned to silence after senior guard Marcus Tsohonis missed both free throws with four seconds left, sealing the team’s 76-74 loss.
“It’s a tough loss because our guys played their hearts out and I was really proud of their efforts,” head coach Dan Monson said. “Playing from behind all game and coming and taking the lead with a minute or two left.”
After taking the lead on the first bucket of the game, Long Beach’s familiar slow start followed. The Gauchos capitalized on The Beach’s streakiness from the field, shooting 31.3% (10-for-32) in the first half to get the early jump that led to a 37-28 halftime score.
After a rocky first half, The Beach had to claw their way back — down by as many as 11 — to claim their first lead since tip-off when Tsohonis drilled a three-pointer with under two minutes remaining. The crowd erupted into a frenzy as the triple gave them a 69–68 lead.
The lead was short-lived as Santa Barbara’s junior guard Ajay Mitchell answered with an and-one layup to give them a 71-69 lead with 1:38 left.
“We just had no answer for Ajay Mitchell,” Monson said. “There was a reason why he was the player of the year in the league last year. He controlled the game right down till the end.”
Mitchell scored a game-high 37 points, going 4-for-6 (66%) from three and 13-for-18 (72%) overall from the field.
With the score within four with 48 seconds left, The Beach had to run a full-court press defense to try and force a Gauchos turnover. The press worked, resulting in a Tsohonis steal and drawing two free throws, knocking them both down to put the score within two (74–72) with 39 seconds left.
The Beach played perfect defense as the shot clock narrowed down in the final seconds to force a shot clock violation until a questionable blocking foul was called on freshman guard Jason Hart Jr. and gave the Gauchos two shots at the foul line.
Tsohonis, who missed both free throws that could have forced overtime, attempted a half-court heave at the buzzer in a last-ditch effort to win the game, but it fell short.
He finished with a team-high 25 points on 9-for-23 (39%) shooting overall from the floor.
Junior guard Jadon Jones (18 points), junior forward Lassina Traore (12 points) and sophomore guard AJ George (10 points) were the only other players for The Beach to score in double figures.
Long Beach State’s loss extends its losing streak to four games and drops their record to 18–13 and 10–9 in the Big West.
“We’ve got to play better, we’ve got to start better, we’ve got to get ourselves more engaged in the game early,” Monson said. “Once we got engaged today, we were a good basketball team and that’s what we’ve got to focus on. We’ve got to flush it.”
The Beach’s loss to Santa Barbara eliminates their chances of finishing at the number-two seed in the Big West, which would have given them a double-bye into the semifinals.
Long Beach will still have a chance to secure an opening-round bye in the Big West Championship with a victory in their season finale against UC Davis at the Walter Pyramid on Saturday at 3 p.m.