SALT LAKE CITY, Utah– Inconsistency was the word of the night for Long Beach State University men’s basketball as it first appeared they were close to pulling off an upset but the game turned out to be a Wildcats onslaught in an 85-65 loss to Arizona.
LBSU head coach Dan Monson said this team was outmatched by the Wildcats in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
“We got beat tonight. They’re better than us,” Monson said. “They outplayed us, but they did not out-tough us, they did not out-compete us.”
Arizona’s roster overpowered the momentum that The Beach carried into the game. The star power of sophomore guard Kylan Boswell, senior center Oumar Ballo and senior guard Caleb Love proved to be too much for The Beach to handle.
Every time it seemed like the Wildcats needed a bucket, one member of the dynamic duo showed up to neutralize The Beach, including a 13-0 run that ended at the hands of Love.
Ballo went perfect with a 4-4 from the field with 11 points, 13 rebounds and four blocks. Ballo single-handedly forced junior forward Lassina Traore to have to play and operate out of the high post, a position Traore was not successful in.
Defensively, The Beach stuck to its guns and ran a 2-3 zone as it has all year long. The Wildcats had a good game from behind the arc shooting 13-35 with a total of 37.1%.
“I knew we were gonna have to take a lot of threes, 35 3-point attempts is a lot for us, but that’s what the game called for today,” Tommy Lloyd, Arizona head coach, said.
The Beach were first to every 50-50 ball and outhustling the Wildcats who looked lackadaisical at times, and this would often be the catalyst of first-half Beach runs.
Coming out of a media timeout at the 11:34 mark in the first half, senior forward Amari Stroud put up five straight points, sending The Beach crowd into a frenzy adding 18-17 to the score in Long Beach State’s favor.
The stadium felt The Beach had a chance of doing the unimaginable and upsetting Arizona.
Long Beach State went the last two minutes without scoring a point and allowed the Wildcats to score seven unanswered points to close out the first half up 41-35.
Arizona had success driving to the basket in transition but lacked clinical finishing at the rim to begin the first half.
The opening of the second half was the complete opposite.
The Wildcats came out of the half with their hands on fire and opened up the half on a 17-2 run in the first four minutes.
Ballo had three blocks in the first five minutes in the second half and deflated Long Beach State’s offense.
The last block was the most emphatic of them all, which resulted in Boswell coming over to celebrate with him and screaming “Get that shit out of here.”
Arizona’s big three closed out the half and secured their first win on their path to the NCAA Championship 85-65 over The Beach.
“We had a lot of adversity, we had a lot of ups and downs, ebbs and flows, but we’re a family, we stay a family through everything,” junior guard Jadon Jones said.
This article was edited on March 21, 2024 for accuracy.