Long Beach State University Athletics
Long Beach State University
13-12, 7-3BWC
Cal Poly
8-15, 2-8BWC
Beach Hangs On To Drop Cal Poly 73-70
2/11/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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Long Beach, Calif. - Four players for Long Beach State finished in double-figures as Long Beach State led for nearly the entire game, holding off a late Cal Poly charge for a 73-70 victory.
Nick Faust led the way with 21 points for Long Beach State (13-12, 7-3 Big West), while Travis Hammonds scored 11 second-half points, finishing with 15 and Branford Jones added 13 points with a team-high seven rebounds.
Cal Poly (8-15, 2-8 Big West) took an early four-point lead, but Long Beach State opened up the game with a 16-2 run capped by a Faust 3-pointer to take a 10-point lead after the first ten minutes.
That cushion would last until halftime and beyond, as the 49ers and Mustangs went back and forth with neither team making a big charge.
The Beach finally appeared to open things up a little bit in the second half as LBSU had 3-pointers in three straight possessions, two from Hammonds and one from A.J. Spencer. That pushed the 49ers to a 17-point lead, 59-42 with just over seven minutes remaining.
That would be Long Beach State's largest lead in the game, however, as Cal Poly continued to hang around. A 3-pointer from Luke Meikle cut the lead to single-digits with 3:39 remaining, and a pair of free throws by David Nwaba, who scored a game-high 24 points, shaved the edge down to four points with 1:04 to play.
Faust and Jones were able to convert free throws down the stretch in what was a miserable day from the line for the Beach, helping Long Beach State hold on for the lead, as a three-point play in the final seconds led to the final score of 73-70.
Long Beach State shot just 51.4 percent from the line, but were helped by strong shooting everywhere else, hitting on 53.3 percent of their 3-pointers and 51.1 percent overall, scoring 28 points in the paint.
"I thought we came out and had a good presence to us to hold [Cal Poly] to 20 points in the first 18 minutes," said LBSU head coach Dan Monson. "But to let a team that had 24 points in the first half score get in rhythm and have 46 in the second half, with nine offensive rebounds, that was just really disappointing."
Long Beach State will take its Big West leading four-game winning streak on the road Saturday. The Beach faces UC Davis at 5:30 p.m. on February 13.
