The UC Riverside men’s basketball team lost a tough battle against Long Beach State, 75-83, Saturday night in Long Beach. After getting a huge upset win against UC Santa Barbara the week before, the Highlanders suffered a blowout loss against UC Davis and looked to get back in the win column against a gritty Long Beach State team. Long Beach State came into this game with a huge win against USC earlier this month, which proved to be a tough test for UCR.
The Elbees jumped out to an early 4-0 start due to two quick turnovers from the Highlanders. UC Riverside was able to settle down, and redshirt sophomore guard Isaiah Moses started to get going by scoring the first seven of nine points for UCR, which gave them a 9-6 lead within the first six minutes of the game. Both teams started to go back and forth as they continued to exchange bucket after bucket. Sophomore guard Nate Pickens started to find a rhythm as he scored two consecutive field goals to give UC Riverside a 13-11 lead at the 10:48 mark. Redshirt freshman forward Kaleb Smith gave valuable minutes off the bench as he scored four consecutive points to keep the Highlanders in the game.
As the first half started to wind down, Moses drove in the paint and finished at the rim to give UCR a 23-20 lead with 5:52 left until halftime. However, Long Beach State started to go on a run to close the first half as a quick 7-0 run turned the tide in favor of the Elbees. UC Riverside would respond with a run of their own as redshirt freshman guard Barrington Hargress knocked down two 3-pointers to give the Highlanders control of the lead once again. Both teams continued to exchange buckets, which ended with a layup from guard Marcus Tsohonis to give Long Beach State a 35-34 lead at the half.
Neither team was willing to give up the lead to start the second half as the lead continued to seesaw between the two teams. For Long Beach State, the Traore brothers started to make their impact as they were getting second-chance points for the Elbees and were disrupting the Highlander offense with their defense and rebounding. Long Beach State started to pull away as they went on an 11-0 run to gain control of the ball game. Back-to-back scores from the Traore brothers pushed the lead to seven at the 13:21 mark, and guard Messiah Thompson scored in back-to-back jumpers to give the Elbess their first double-digit lead of the game, 55-43, with under 12 minutes left in the game. Tsohonis also started to find a rhythm as he continued to work in the mid-range and score against the UCR defense. After a missed 3-pointer from Tsohonis, forward Amari Stroud got the offensive rebound and emphatically dunked the ball back in to give Long Beach State their biggest lead of the night, 67-52, which forced head coach Mike Magpayo to call a timeout.
Off of the timeout, Smith knocked down two straight 3-pointers to cut the deficit to 10. Off of a fastbreak, Hargress was fouled and sunk in one of two free-throws to close the lead within single digits. However, the UC Riverside defense couldn’t find an answer for the Long Beach State offense as after a block from forward Aboubacar Traore, guard AJ George dunked the ball on the other end to extend the Elbee lead back up to 13 points. As time winded down, Long Beach State held on to win 83-75 and gave UC Riverside its third loss in conference play.
Graduate student forward Kyle Owens led the way with 19 points and six rebounds for the Highlanders. Hargress finished the game with 14 points and eight rebounds. Smith, off the bench, scored a career-high 19 points and seven rebounds.
The Highlanders fall to 6-10 (1-3) on the season and will face Cal Poly at home on Thursday, Jan. 11, at 7 p.m.
