LONG BEACH — CSUN on Wednesday night entered its Big West Conference men’s basketball game at Long Beach State having lost its conference opener by 19 points to Hawaii. Considering the Matadors also lost 11 consecutive nonconference games between Nov. 13 and Dec. 23, it figured they could have a difficult time with the 49ers.
The Matadors gave the 49ers all they could handle, but after a slow start, Long Beach State emerged with an 80-70 victory before 2,315 at Walter Pyramid.
A dunk by Mason Riggins gave Long Beach a nine-point lead (74-65) with 3:20 to play. There was still enough time for CSUN to come back, but the 49ers had all the momentum. And when Temidayo Yussuf made two free throws with 2:29 to play for a 76-65 lead, the Matadors were all but done, though they never threw in the towel.
Terrell Gomez made it interesting when he sank a 3-pointer with 1:13 to play to pull CSUN within 76-70.
The 49ers (8-11, 2-1) got a game-high 29 points from Gabe Levin, who also had nine rebounds. Deishuan Booker contributed 19 points and Yussuf had 15 points and eight rebounds.
Gomez led the Matadors (3-13, 0-2) with 24 points, Lyrik Shreiner had 13, Micheal Warren 12 and Tavrion Dawson 11.
Long Beach led 38-29 at halftime.
As much as anything, Long Beach head coach Dan Monson liked the way his team played defensively.
“We’re really trying to focus on our defensive disruption and I really thought the last 15 minutes of the first half was one of our better defensive stretches,” he said. “I think it gives our guys confidence that we can do it, but we’ve just gotta sustain it.”
The 49ers trailed 20-14 with just less than eight minutes to play in the first half, then embarked on an 18-3 run to lead 32-23. Monson said it was the defense that got the offense rolling.
“I thought we got some stops, deflections and we got out in the open court and got some space,” he said. “And we didn’t settle; we attacked the paint.”
Levin concurred.
“That was our defense,” said Levin, who shot 10 of 15 and made nine of 10 free throws; Long Beach was 28 of 33 from the free-throw line. “That gave us easy opportunities to score on the other end. I thought we had multiple opportunities to close out the game early.
“I don’t know if it was complacency or what, but we let them back in it too many times.”
Indeed, when Long Beach took its biggest lead of the game (56-44) with 13:18 to play, it appeared the 49ers might run away with it.
But Gomez and the Matadors wouldn’t have it.
CSUN coach Reggie Theus bemoaned all the free throws the 49ers took, and their 40 points in the paint.
“When a team shoots 33 free throws, they get 40 points in the paint — 68 points between free throws and paint touches — it’s hard to beat them,” he said.
Theus gave his players credit for hanging tough. He liked what he saw from Gomez, his freshman guard.
“I thought Terrell played extremely well,” he said. “I try to utilize him, try to put him in places where he can play his best basketball.”