Men's Basketball Enters Second Half Of Big West Play At UC Santa Barbara

LONG BEACH, Calif. -- Long Beach State enters the second half of Big West play, facing UC Santa Barbara on the road Saturday night. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. on ESPN+.

Game:..................... Long Beach State at UC Santa Barbara
Date:.................................................... Saturday, February 1
Time:............................................................................ 7 p.m.
Location:.............................................. Santa Barbara, Calif.
Arena:.......................................... The Thunderdome (6,000)
TV:.............................................................................. ESPN+
TV Talent:................................................... Hunter Shumake
Webcast:.................................................................... ESPN+
Radio:.............................................................................. N/A
Live Stats:.............................................. beachlivestats.com

RIGHT AWAY
• The Black and Blue Rivalry marked the return to the Walter Pyramid for LBSU, and the Beach responded well. All five starters finished in double-figures; Devin Askew scored 18 points with 8 assists and Derrick Michael Xzavierro set career highs with 12 points and 14 rebounds and 3 blocks but the Beach came up just short against UC Irvine, falling in overtime 80-75.

• The Beach has been very efficient from the field in Big West play, and leads the Big West with 46.5% shooting overall as a team. Eight different players are shooting over 40%, and LBSU also ranks second in 3-point shooting percentage at 40.7%, led by strong shooting from Varick Lewis, TJ Wainwright, Devin Askew and Kam Martin.

• The Beach was shooting the lights out in their recent winning run, capitalizing on strong offensive play. Long Beach State shot 51.8% as a team in December, shooting 41.4% from three and averaging 77.4 points per game while limiting their foes to 65.4 points per game on 34.0% shooting from distance. The Beach has shot over 45% in 9 of their last 13 games.

• Senior Devin Askew set a career-high with 35 points on the road at Cal Poly, marking the third time this season an LBSU player had scored 30 or more points. TJ Wainwright scored a career-high 31 points at home against Cal State Fullerton, and Askew finished with 32 points while adding five assists, leading Long Beach State to an 84-73 win at UC Davis.

• Devin Askew is now averaging 18.2 points and 4.7 assists per game, and has taken on a leadership role where he is shining for Long Beach State. In Big West play, Askew is fifth in scoring at 19.9 points per game and leads the league in both assists per game in minutes played this season. Askew has started and scored in double-figures every game in 2024-25.

• Long Beach State has been led by their guard play. In addition to Askew, TJ Wainwright is averaging 13.2 points per game, scoring over 20 points on four occasions, most recently at CSUN with a team-high 27 points. True freshman Kam Martin is third on the team in scoring at 8.8 points per game, shooting 43.8% from three on the year.

NEWS AND NOTES
• Long Beach State opened up Big West action with two strong performances in Bold Week. The Beach went on the road and defeated Cal State Fullerton behind a strong defensive effort, and then rode a career night from Devin Askew and a double-double from Austin Johnson to a 76-68 win over Hawai'i inside the Walter Pyramid.

• Askew filled up the stat sheet against the 'Bows, finishing with 28 points, 6 rebounds, 7 assists and 7 steals. Askew is one of just 15 players in the nation to have a game with seven steals or more, and ranks in the Top 5 in the Big West in scoring, assists and steals in 2024-25. In total, he averaged 22 points and five rebounds, assists and steals per game, earning Big West Player of the Week honors.

• Long Beach State made the NCAA Tournament in 2023-24, reaching March Madness for the 10th time in program history, and the first since the 2011-12 season. Coming off of a five-game losing streak entering the Big West Championship, Long Beach State responded by winning three straight, including victories over the (1) and (2) seeds to reach the NCAA Tournament, where the program fell to No. 9 Arizona in the first round.

• The Beach returns three players from that postseason run, and turned to the transfer portal heavily while recruiting 12 newcomers to fill out the roster. Chris Acker and his staff brought in six Division I transfers, three junior college transfers and three high school recruits to complete the 2024-25 Long Beach State squad.

• The team faces a true rebuild, with 12 newcomers and just three returning players. Long Beach State returns less than 5% of its scoring, rebounding and minutes played from the 2023-24 team, ranking in the Top 10 fewest nationally in all three categories. Only 15 programs have less minutes continuity than the Beach, but Long Beach State went big in their rebuild, with the 16th ranked roster based on average height in the country.

THE STAFF
• Chris Acker enters his first Division I head coaching role with the Beach, having spent the last five seasons as an assistant coach at San Diego State and playing a crucial role in the recent success of the Aztecs. In the last five seasons with Acker as an assistant, SDSU posted a 134-34 overall record and reached four straight NCAA tournaments, the 2023-24 Sweet 16 and the 2022-23 NCAA Championship Game.

• John Montgomery comes to the Beach after nine seasons at Hawai'i, where he spent the last three as the Associate Head Coach for the Rainbow Warriors. Acker and Montgomery served on the same staff for two seasons, including the program's 2015-16 NCAA Tournament run where UH won their first ever NCAA game and won a program-record 28 games.

• Anthony Santos also comes to the Beach with plenty of Big West experience after spending 12 years at Cal State Fullerton. Santos worked his way up through the ranks, starting as a manager and ending his time with the Titans as the program's Associate Head Coach under Dedrique Taylor.

• Phillip Scott is the program's other assistant coach,coming to the Beach after a long history of collaborating with Acker in player development. Ali Tavakol joined Acker in making the move from San Diego State, and will serve as the program's Director of Basketball Operations, and Jacob Eyman, a former team captain with Portland State will work as the program's Director of Player Relations, beginning his coaching career after playing overseas.

PLAYER NOTES
• Senior guard Devin Askew has one of the highest profiles of the newcomers to the Beach. Askew is leading the team in scoring at 18.2 points per game, and has scored in double-figures in every game for the Beach while also leading the team in assists. A critical part of the Long Beach State team, Askew leads the Big West in minutes played and is Top 20 in the nation in minutes played percentage. One of the top recruits in the nation out of high school in Sacramento, Askew started 20 games as a true freshman with Kentucky in 2020-21, and played with both Texas and Cal before joining the Beach with two years of eligibility remaining.

• TJ Wainwright makes his return to California after two successful seasons at Robert Morris, a Horizon League school in Pennsylvania. Wainwright averaged 10.0 points per game as a sophomore, and is averaging 13.2 points per game for Long Beach State, second on the team behind Askew and adding 26 steals while shooting 41.5% from three.

• The first Division I scholarship player from Indonesia, Derrick Michael Xzavierro transferred to the Beach with three years of eligibility remaining from GCU. Xzavierro (or DMX) suffered a significant injury with a collapsed lung just before his first season, costing him his 2022-23 campaign and affecting his time with the Lopes last season as well. DMX has rapidly improved, recording a double-double in the season opener and now leading the team with 6.5 rebounds per game and 25 blocks while adding 4.6 points per game in scoring in 15 starts.

• Austin Johnson is a name that will resonate with fans of the Big West, as the graduate transfer played three seasons with Black and Blue Rivals UC Irvine. Johnson has started in 20 games for Long Beach State, and is averaging 7.2 points per game and 5.0 rebounds while making 16 blocks. Johnson is averaging 8.8 points per game in league action while shooting 54.1 percent from the field in Big West games.

• A Compton native, Cam Denson is also preparing to close out his collegiate career at the Beach. A versatile and tough defender, Denson is averaging 5.7 points and 4.0 rebounds per game. Denson played 64 games over the last two seasons at Pacific and averaged 8.5 points per game while leading the Tigers in rebounding and blocked shots last season.

• Kam Martin originally signed with the prior coaching staff during his final year at Blue Ridge School, and the freshman recommitted to Acker and his staff to join Long Beach State. That decision has paid off as the promising freshman has been one of the season's bright spots, scoring over 15 points three times and currently averaging 8.8 points per game, third most on the team this year while shooting 43.8% from three, one of the nation's leaders in 3-point shooting percentage.

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Men's Basketball Enters Second Half Of Big West Play At UC Santa Barbara

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Players Mentioned

Devin Askew

Cam Denson

Austin Johnson

Varick Lewis

Kam Martin

TJ Wainwright

Derrick Michael Xzavierro

Long Beach State University Athletics