LONG BEACH — Freshman forward Aboubacar Traore had 17 points, seven rebounds and three blocked shots in his return to the starting lineup, and Long Beach State defeated UC Santa Barbara, 65-58, in a Big West Conference game on Thursday night at the Walter Pyramid.
Freshman guard Jadon Jones had 13 points, seven rebounds, four steals, three blocks and no turnovers in a team-high 33 minutes, anchoring the defensive effort for LBSU (5-9 overall, 1-1 Big West), which held the Gauchos to 24 points in the second half.
Junior guard Joel Murray had 15 points for Long Beach, which made all 17 of its free-throw attempts to help offset a poor shooting night from its second-leading scorer, Colin Slater (1 for 10).
Ajay Mitchell had 15 points to pace UCSB (7-6, 0-1). Miles Norris added 10 points and Amadou Sow had 14 rebounds.
UCSB ended the first half on a 10-2 run to take a 34-26 lead at the intermission, then converted a pair of LBSU turnovers into two quick baskets to extend its lead to 12 points just 35 seconds into the second half.
Long Beach coach Dan Monson, having seen his team surrender scoring runs early in the second half of several games this season, called a timeout that seemed to get his team rolling defensively. The hosts held the Gauchos to 20 points the rest of the way, which bought them time to whittle away at the deficit.
Long Beach finally tied the score at 52-52 on a Jones 3-pointer with 8:13 left. The Gauchos the lead again on a Mitchell jumper with 3:45 left, but LBSU regained the lead for good at 59-58 on a Murray jumper with 3:27 left.
The teams remained stuck on that score until a crucial steal from Jones gave Long Beach the ball with less than 90 seconds left. A Traore putback basket gave LBSU a three-point lead with 56 seconds left, then a key rebound from Jones gave the hosts possession again with 30 seconds left. Slater and Murray each made a pair of free throws after that to close out the win.
“I’m just really proud of my guys,” said Monson, praising his team for working through the starts and stops of the COVID-impacted schedule. “It’s been an absolute difficult ride to get defensively organized, to get defensively better, and you gotta give guys credit. They haven’t hung their head. They’ve fought to get better.
“To be able to hold the most efficient offensive team in our league to 58 points is by far our best defensive outing. We were in control on the defensive end for most of the game. We were able to be pretty aggressive in the second half, offensively, and made our free throws and got some shots to fall. I thought it was just a great team win.”
The teams ended up alternating poor shooting halves. Long Beach shot 29.6% (8 for 27) in the first half before making half of its 26 shots after halftime.
UCSB shot 57% in the first half but was just 11 for 35 from the field (31.4%) in the second half (0 for 8 from behind the arc). Over the final 10 minutes, the Gauchos scored just six points.
LBSU was perfect from the free-throw line for the third time in program history, and the first time since 1996. Traore went 5 for 5 from the stripe, while Murray, Slate and Joe Hampton all went 4 for 4.
UCSB was 9 for 15 from the free-throw line.
UP NEXT
LBSU hosts CSUN on Saturday at 4 p.m.
True freshman Aboubacar Traore scored a career-high 17 points to lead the Beach in a huge win in @BigWestSports action, defeating UCSB 65-58!! #GoBeach pic.twitter.com/mhJH6NnQdU
— LBSU Mens Basketball (@LBSUhoops) January 14, 2022
Keeping up the tradition! Another unreal block from freshman Aboubacar Traore! #GoBeach pic.twitter.com/SdcfF1NRwT
— LBSU Mens Basketball (@LBSUhoops) January 14, 2022
Traore with the follow and @LBSUHoops up three! #GoBeach pic.twitter.com/nIZTCogLrh
— LBSU Mens Basketball (@LBSUhoops) January 14, 2022