The UC Riverside men’s basketball team suffered their second-straight loss against Long Beach State Saturday afternoon in the SRC Arena. The Highlanders dropped their last contest against Long Beach State, 75-83, on Jan. 6 when they visited the Elbees on their home floor. UCR looked to get back into the win column after a heartbreaking 65-66 loss to UC San Diego from their previous game and looked to get their revenge against Long Beach State.
UC Riverside got out to a hot start as defense was a main focal point to start the game. The Highlanders forced the Elbees to shoot 1-14 from the field to open up the game, which resulted in UCR jumping out to an early 15-3 lead. Graduate student forward Kyle Owens started the game hot with five early points and the 3-pointers started to fall for the Highlanders. Redshirt sophomore guard Isaiah Moses and junior center Ben Griscti knocked down 3-pointers of their own to give UC Riverside an early 12-point lead.
Long Beach State started to find a rhythm after trailing double-digits. Senior guard Marcus Tsohonis dropped in four straight points and the Traore brothers found easy layups down in the paint as the Elbees went on a 9-0 run to bring the UCR lead to 15-12 with 8:53 left in the first half, forcing head coach Mike Magpayo to call a timeout.
Off of the timeout, redshirt freshman Barrington Hargress started to make his impact felt as he knocked two straight jumpshots to extend the UC Riverside lead to five. On the next possession, Moses found himself open and sank a 3-pointer of his own to bring the score to 23-17 with 6:29 left until halftime. Junior forward Luke Turner checked in at the 5-minute mark and immediately made his presence felt as he knocked down two corner 3-pointers in the span of one minute to extend the Highlander lead to 13. After a missed 3-pointer from Long Beach State, redshirt junior Jhaylon Martinez was able to finish a hook shot to give the Highlanders their biggest lead of the night, 32-17, with 3:34 left until halftime. Hargress continued his stellar first half as he finished with nine points at the half and gave UCR a 36-23 lead going into the break.
The 3-pointers kept on falling for the Highlanders early in the second half as Moses and sophomore guard Nate Pickens knocked down 3-pointers of their own to keep the UC Riverside lead in the double-digits, 42-29. However, Long Beach State raised their intensity on the defensive end of the basketball and slowly clawed their way back into the ball game. The Highlanders started to turn the ball over due to stifling Elbee defense and they could not find any clean looks at the rim. After a double-team on Moses, Tshonis was able to get the steal and finish the transition bucket to trim the lead down to six. Couple of possessions later, junior forward Aboubacar Traore finished at the rim off of an assist from redshirt freshman guard Jason Hart Jr., which brought the score to 45-44. Hargress was able to stop the run with a mid-range jump shot but the Elbees responded with a Tsohonis 3-pointer to tie the game at 47-47 with 6:38 left in the game.
After climbing back to tie the game, Long Beach never looked back as sophomore guard AJ George knocked down a mid-range jumpshot to give them their first lead of the game, 49-47. On the next possession, George was able to finish a layup off of the offensive rebound to extend the Long Beach State lead. The Elbees went on a 12-0 run after tying up the game to flip the game upside down. UC Riverside seemed to be lost on both sides of the basketball as they kept turning the ball over and giving up offensive rebounds. With 1:27 left in the game, Tsohonis found George in the paint for a layup to put the exclamation mark in the match as Long Beach State came away with the victory 65-53 over UC Riverside.
Hargress led the way for the Highlanders with 16 points, three rebounds and three assists. Moses contributed with 13 points and four assists but also had six turnovers in the outing.
The Highlanders drop to 8-14 (3-7) on the season and will go to the Los Angeles area to take on Cal State Northridge next Saturday, Feb. 3, at 5:00 p.m.
