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Long Beach State dispatches CSUN with more defense

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Long Beach State dispatches CSUN with more defense

LONG BEACH — The Long Beach State men’s basketball team is finding its defensive groove at the right time.

For the second time in three days, Long Beach used a stingy defensive effort to earn a Big West Conference victory, holding Cal State Northridge to 35.6% shooting while pulling away in the second half for a comfortable 71-55 win on Saturday at the Walter Pyramid.

LBSU (6-9 overall, 2-1 Big West) was paced by Joel Murray (16 points, six rebounds) and Jadon Jones (15 points, four rebounds and four steals), and freshman Aboubacar Traore had his second career double-double with 10 points, 16 rebounds (seven offensive) and three blocked shots. Joe Hampton and Jordan Roberts added seven points apiece for LBSU.

Atin Wright led CSUN with 14 points, while Onyi Eyisi had 10 points and 10 rebounds. Brendan Harrick had nine points and nine rebounds.

Long Beach held an opponent under 60 points for the second game in a row, building on its 65-58 home victory over reigning conference champion UC Santa Barbara on Thursday night. LBSU forced CSUN (5-10, 1-2 Big West) into 17 turnovers.

“I’m happy for our guys to put a week together and get rewarded for being coachable and doing the things we’re asking them to do,” LBSU coach Dan Monson said. “To win with our defense on Thursday the way we did and to be able to come back 48 hours later and have that same mindset, that same energy, it was very gratifying as a coach. … We grew a lot this week.”

Just like the win against the Gauchos, the second half was the difference. Long Beach led 30-29 at halftime, then opened the second half with an 8-0 run fueled by Traore (two dunks and a layup). CSUN, which went 1 for 9 from 3-point range in the second half, never pulled closer than seven points the rest of the way.

A Hampton layup extended the lead to 15 points with 10:53 left, and Long Beach eventually led by 20 on a three-point play by AJ Neal with 1:12 left.

Jones scored 11 of his 15 points in the second half, while Colin Slater had all of his team-high seven assists after halftime.

Long Beach outrebounded the Matadors 44-38 and got to the free-throw line nearly twice as much, going 19 for 29 at the stripe while CSUN was just 9 for 15.

UP NEXT

Long Beach plays at UC San Diego on Thursday night then hosts rival UC Irvine next Saturday.

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