LONG BEACH — The Long Beach State basketball team was forced to step into its past on Saturday evening in an attempt to firm up its future.
Because of a leaky roof at the Walter Pyramid, Long Beach moved its Big West Conference game against Cal State Northridge to the Gold Mine, an on-campus auxiliary gym that hadn’t hosted a men’s game in 29 years.
LBSU didn’t let the unfamiliar, cozy surroundings get in the way of its quest to move up in the standings, posting a 71-64 victory over the Matadors to end a three-game losing streak.
“Long Beach State had a lot of success in that gym and I told our guys, ‘In 16 years, I’ve never had to coach a game in here,’ and it was kind of an honor to know the coaches that have done that here, from Tex Winter to Jerry Tarkanian to Seth Greenberg,” Long Beach coach Dan Monson said. “They roamed those sidelines and we needed their karma today.”
Lassina Traore had 18 points and six rebounds and Aboubacar Traore narrowly missed the program’s first triple-double with 17 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists for Long Beach (16-14 overall, 10-8 Big West), which remains a half-game behind UC Davis for sixth place in the conference standings with two games left in the regular season.
UC Davis (17-12, 10-7) was unable to play Cal State Fullerton on Thursday because of a lack of healthy players and the game was ruled a no-contest, but the Aggies managed to beat last-place Cal Poly, 58-52, on Saturday with seven players.
Marcus Tsohonis contributed 12 points in a reserve role for LBSU and AJ George finished with 11.
De’Sean Allen-Eikens scored 21 points and Ethan Igbanugo finished with 19 points for CSUN (7-23, 4-15), which has not won a road game this season.
The Matadors played without leading scorer Atin Wright (16.7 ppg), who sat out with a leg injury.
Northridge pulled even at 61-all on a dunk by Fidelis Okereke with 3:42 left, but that was the final field goal for the Matadors.
Lassina Traore tipped in a…
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