Men’s Basketball Drops Cal State Bakersfield As Home Win Streak Continues

Saturday, January 10

Long Beach, Calif.

4 p.m.

Long Beach State University

6-11,2-3Big West

Cal State Bakersfield

8-10,2-4Big West

CSU Bakersfield

Long Beach St.

Men’s Basketball Drops Cal State Bakersfield As Home Win Streak Continues

1/10/2026 7:13:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

Long Beach State won 81-75 behind three players with 20 or more points.

By: Roger Kirk, Associate Athletics Director, Communications & Broadcast

LONG BEACH, Calif. – Petar Majstorovic, Gavin Sykes and Rob Diaz III all had at least 20 points for Long Beach State, as the trio guided the Beach to an 81-75 win over Cal State Bakersfield Saturday in the LBS Financial Credit Union Pyramid.

Long Beach State (6-11, 2-3 Big West) had just four bench points on the night, but had key minutes from the substitutes while the starters shined on Saturday against Cal State Bakersfield (8-10, 2-4 Big West).

Majstorovic worked around foul trouble all night, yet still finished with a team-high 23 points, and Gavin Sykes added 22 points as he remains among the nation's freshman scoring leaders, but key performances against the Runners came from freshman Leopold Levillain and Diaz. Diaz filled the stat sheet for the Beach, scoring 20 points and adding 9 assists, 6 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 blocks and making just one turnover in a stellar night. Levillain finished with the first double-double of his young career, scored 10 points with an LBSU individual high on the year of 14 rebounds.

Sykes got the Beach going early and Long Beach State raced out to a 12-4 lead in the opening minutes, but Cal State Bakersfield found an answer defensively with full-court pressure, forcing the Beach into nine first-half turnovers which helped get the Runners back into the game. Taking a lead with just under 13 minutes left in the first half, Cal State Bakersfield went on a 9-2 run to push to a 26-18 lead, their largest of the game.

Long Beach State was able to recover, with a Sykes 3-pointer cutting the lead back to three and then pushing out in front at 32-30 on a fast break transition bucket from Diaz. Tied at 34-34, Long Beach State closed the half on an 8-2 run to lead 42-36 at the break behind 17 first-half points from Sykes.

Pushing the lead to a high of 16 with just over 12 minutes to play, Long Beach State had the contest mostly in control, but the Runners made a late push as Majstorovic was limited to 13 minutes in the second half with continuing foul issues. A huge offensive rebound and putback from Levillain put the Beach up 8 with three minutes remaining, and LBSU closed out the game from the line for an 81-75 victory, their third straight win at home.

Home is where the Beach will stay for one more game in the current homestand, hosting UC Riverside at 7 p.m. on Thursday, January 15 on ESPN+.