RIVERSIDE — The Long Beach State men’s basketball team is running out of time to grab a spot in next month’s Big West Tournament, and Thursday night’s results nudged LBSU a little closer to exclusion.
Nate Pickens scored a career-high 27 points, Barrington Hargress had 19 and host UC Riverside made 14 3-point shots to hand Long Beach State an 87-66 defeat at UCR. Isaiah Moses added 13 points for the Highlanders (18-10 overall, 11-5 Big West), who shot 50% from behind the arc to outscore the visitors 42-9 from the perimeter. They outrebounded them 39-23 as well.
Austin Johnson tied a career-high with 22 points on 8-of-11 shooting and added six rebounds, six steals and two blocked shots to lead Long Beach (7-20, 3-12), which sits in 10th place in the 11-team league. Devin Askew added 16 points, four rebounds and four assists and TJ Wainwright had 13 points.
Only eight teams advance to the conference tournament in Henderson, Nevada, and LBSU is 2½ games behind eighth-place Cal State Bakersfield (12-16, 6-10) with five games left in the regular season. Long Beach still has a home game against the Roadrunners but also has road games against first-place UC San Diego and second-place UC Irvine.
Johnson scored six of the first eight points for Long Beach, which grabbed a 14-4 lead early and was ahead 20-10 with just over eight minutes left in the first half. Hargress was the catalyst for a UCR turnround, hitting a 3-pointer that sparked a 16-0 run as the Highlanders took the lead and held a 38-30 advantage by halftime.
UCR erupted for 49 points in the second half and led by as much as 27 as it remains in the hunt for a top-two seed in the Big West Tournament, a half-game behind third-place Cal State Northridge and 1½ behind UCI.
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UC Riverside was hot from long range all night, going 7 for 13 in the first half and 7 for 15 after the intermission. Long Beach shot 3 for 12 from 3-point range for the night.
Pickens shot 8 for 13 from the field, 4 for 7 from 3-point range and 7 for 7 from the free-throw line. Hargress shot 7 for 11 overall and 3 for 5 from behind the arc to go with five assists and two steals. Moses shot 3 for 4 from the 3-point line, while Niyi Olabode added 10 points and five rebounds and shot 2 for 5 from long range.
UP NEXT
Long Beach State hosts UC Santa Barbara on Saturday at 4 p.m.
BIG WEST STANDINGS
Through Thursday, Feb. 20
UC San Diego – 23-4, 13-2
UC Irvine – 22-5, 12-3
CS Northridge – 19-7, 11-4
UC Riverside – 18-10, 11-5
UC Santa Barbara – 17-10, 9-7
UC Davis – 15-12, 9-7
Hawaii – 14-12, 6-9
CS Bakersfield – 12-16, 6-10
Cal Poly (SLO) – 10-17, 4-11
Long Beach State – 7-20, 3-12
CS Fullerton – 6-22, 1-15