Long Beach State’s Jadon Jones dives for a loose ball and flips it to teammate Aboubacar Traore during Thursday night’s game against Cal State Fullerton at the Walter Pyramid. (Photo by Scott Varley, Contributing Photographer)
Long Beach State’s Lassina Traore shoots over Cal State Fullerton’s Nathaniel Bastian during Thursday night’s game at the Walter Pyramid. (Photo by Scott Varley, Contributing Photographer)
Long Beach State head coach Dan Monson tries to get a foul clarification from a referee during Thursday night’s game against Cal State Fullerton at the Walter Pyramid. (Photo by Scott Varley, Contributing Photographer)
Cal State Fullerton’s Tory San Antonio tries to grab a rebound during Thursday night’s game against Long Beach State at the Walter Pyramid. (Photo by Scott Varley, Contributing Photographer)
Long Beach State’s Lassina Traore dunks after a turnover during Thursday night’s game against Cal State Fullerton at the Walter Pyramid. (Photo by Scott Varley, Contributing Photographer)
Cal State Fullerton head coach Dedrique Taylor questions a non-call during Thursday night’s game against Long Beach State at the Walter Pyramid. (Photo by Scott Varley, Contributing Photographer)
Cal State Fullerton’s Vincent Lee dunks during Thursday night’s game against Long Beach State at the Walter Pyramid. (Photo by Scott Varley, Contributing Photographer)
Long Beach State’s Jadon Jones reacts after making a 3-point shot and drawing a foul during Thursday night’s game against Cal State Fullerton at the Walter Pyramid. (Photo by Scott Varley, Contributing Photographer)
Long Beach State head coach Dan Monson yells instructions to his players from the sidelines during Thursday night’s game against Cal State Fullerton at the Walter Pyramid. (Photo by Scott Varley, Contributing Photographer)
Cal State Fullerton’s Max Jones is fouled by Long Beach State’s Lassina Traore while under the basket during Thursday night’s game at LBSU’s Walter Pyramid. (Photo by Scott Varley, Contributing Photographer)
Cal State Fullerton’s Jalen Harris drives to the basket during Thursday night’s game against Long Beach State at the Walter Pyramid. (Photo by Scott Varley, Contributing Photographer)
Long Beach State’s Aboubacar Traore dunks during Thursday night’s game against Cal State Fullerton at the Walter Pyramid. (Photo by Scott Varley, Contributing Photographer)
Cal State Fullerton’s Max Jones drives around Long Beach State’s AJ George during Thursday night’s game at the Walter Pyramid. (Photo by Scott Varley, Contributing Photographer)
Long Beach State’s Tone Hunter loses the ball as Cal State Fullerton’s Max Jones defends during Thursday night’s game at the Walter Pyramid. LBSU got contributions from up and down its roster in a 72-67 win. (Photo by Scott Varley, Contributing Photographer)
Long Beach State’s Jeffrey Yan passes the ball around the defense of Cal State Fullerton’s Jalen Harris during Thursday night’s game at the Walter Pyramid. (Photo by Scott Varley, Contributing Photographer)
Long Beach State’s Marcus Thompson shoots over Cal State Fullerton’s Vincent Lee during Thursday night’s game at the Walter Pyramid. (Photo by Scott Varley, Contributing Photographer)
Long Beach State and Cal State Fullerton players scramble for a rebound during Thursday night’s game at the Walter Pyramid. (Photo by Scott Varley, Contributing Photographer)
Cal State Fullerton’s Vincent Lee and Long Beach State’s Lassina Traore battle for a rebound during Thursday night’s game at the Walter Pyramid. (Photo by Scott Varley, Contributing Photographer)
Cal State Fullerton’s Max Jones pressures Long Beach State’s Aboubacar Traore as Traore brings the ball up the court during Thursday night’s game at the Walter Pyramid. (Photo by Scott Varley, Contributing Photographer)
Cal State Fullerton’s Daeshawn Eaton blocks a shot by Long Beach State’s Marcus Tsohonis during Thursday night’s game at the Walter Pyramid. (Photo by Scott Varley, Contributing Photographer)
Long Beach State’s Tobias Rotegaard passes the ball inside to a teammate during Thursday night’s game against Cal State Fullerton at the Walter Pyramid. (Photo by Scott Varley, Contributing Photographer)
Long Beach State’s Aboubacar Traore, right, and Lassina Traore share a laugh after Aboubacar missed an easy shot as time expired in their victory over Cal State Fullerton on Thursday night at the Walter Pyramid. (Photo by Scott Varley, Contributing Photographer)
LONG BEACH — Overcoming adversity has become a theme during the Big West Conference basketball season.
Several teams have seen top players go down with injuries or illness during conference play, leaving the supporting casts to carry the load.
Long Beach State proved to be the deeper team on Thursday night against visiting Cal State Fullerton, resulting in a 72-67 victory at the Walter Pyramid.
Marcus Tsohonis scored 17 points in his second game back from an ankle injury, going 5 for 6 from the free-throw line in the final 32 seconds to secure the win.
Lassina Traore had 16 points and 16 rebounds, Jadon Jones scored 13 points and Aboubacar Traore contributed 13 rebounds and five assists for LBSU (9-10 overall, 3-4 Big West).
Long Beach was without senior point guard Joel Murray for the third straight game because of a wrist injury. Murray is the lone returning first-team All-Big West selection from last season.
“We don’t have a main player, our strength is in our numbers,” Long Beach coach Dan Monson said. “Today, they trusted each other.”
The Titans (10-10, 4-4) were also missing their leading scorer, Latrell Wrightsell Jr. (15.7 ppg), who was out with COVID, Fullerton coach Dedrique Taylor said.
Taylor said the Titans also needed to rely on a next-man-up mentality, but they didn’t get the results they needed.
“I thought Long Beach State had that tonight and they came out victorious because they executed their game plan without some of their key players,” Taylor said. “I don’t think we did a good job of executing and guarding the way that we have in the past.”
UC Riverside was without its best player for six games, but Zyon Pullin returned on Thursday and the second-team All-Big West selection from last season made the game-winning basket with two seconds left in a 74-72 win at UC Davis, keeping the Highlanders (14-6, 6-1) atop the conference standings by a half-game.
UCR went 5-1 while Pullin was out.
UC Irvine (13-6, 6-1) is playing without 7-foot center Bent Leuchten, who was named Big West Player of the Week earlier this month after leading the Anteaters to wins against UC Davis and Long Beach State.
Grayson Carper made his fourth 3-pointer of the game with 2:22 left to cut Long Beach’s lead to 65-63, but Lassina Traore scored on the other end and Fullerton came up empty on its next three possessions.
Tsohonis then sealed the win at the free-throw line.
LBSU had a dominant 49-29 advantage in rebounds and held the Titans to 36.1% shooting but committed 19 turnovers compared to seven for Fullerton.
“They owned the paint tonight,” Taylor said. “When they didn’t get the initial shot, they got offensive rebounds and that hurt us, and I don’t think we were able to recover from their aggressive style.”
Jalen Harris scored 18 points to lead Fullerton. Max Jones added 13 and Carper scored 12 off the bench.
Hartwell’s last-second 3-pointer leads UC Riverside past Long Beach State
The Titans scored the final four points of the first half to trim LBSU’s lead to 40-37.
Three players scored eight points in the first half for the Titans, and the most surprising was reserve forward John Mikey Square, who came in averaging 1.5 ppg but was 4 for 5 from the floor in the opening half.
Long Beach shot 53.3% from the floor in the opening half, including 13 for 19 on two-point shots.
Lassina Traore had eight points and eight rebounds in the opening 20 minutes.
“We started this year with a 10-man rotation so guys have experience,” Monson said. “At the end of the day, every team is going to have (injuries), that’s just college basketball. It’s too physical, everybody’s too fast, strong. It’s almost like football was 30 years ago. You have to allow for that and it needs to be a next-man-up mentality and our guys really had that today.”
