PROVO, Utah — The Long Beach State men’s basketball team held a five-point halftime lead, but second-seeded BYU used a big second-half run to roll to a 93-72 win in a first-round game of the NIT on Wednesday night at BYU.
Long Beach (20-13) was without forwards Aboubacar Traore and Romelle Mansel for much of the game. Traore was unable to start after a back injury sustained in the Big West Tournament championship game on Saturday night, and Mansel aggravated an injury he sustained in the conference tournament just 50 seconds into the game and was unable to continue.
Despite the early setbacks, Long Beach was in control during the first half, leading by as much as eight points before settling for a 46-41 advantage at the break. BYU (23-10) shot just 20% from 3-point range in the first half, when leading scorer Alex Barcello (17.2 ppg) was held to three points.
Joel Murray scored three straight baskets for Long Beach out of the halftime break, and the LBSU withstood the first push from the Cougars. The score was tied at 57-57 with 11:41 left, but BYU followed a Roberts free throw with a 21-0 run to take control.
Murray finished with a game-high 24 points, while Jordan Roberts had 16 points and six rebounds. Big West Player of the Year Colin Slater had 15 points, while Jadon Jones added 13 points and seven rebounds.
Caleb Lohner had a career-high 20 points on 9-for-11 shooting to pace BYU. Gideon George had 16 points, Barcello finished with 14 points and Fousseyni Traore had 11 points, seven rebounds and three blocked shots.
BYU enjoyed a 45-30 rebounding advantage and shot 55.4% overall (36 for 65) and 10 for 28 from 3-point range with good ball movement (28 assists).
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Long Beach shot just 33.3% overall (19 for 57), including a 3-for-22 mark from behind the arc and just four assists, but the visitors shot 26 more free throws than the Cougars and finished 31 for 41 from the stripe.
The Big West regular-season champions, Long Beach had the 17th 20-win season in program history and made its 18th postseason appearance (ninth NIT).