CONTACT US

Contact Form

    News Details

    Long Beach State’s comeback falls short at UCSD
    • March 7, 2025

    LA JOLLA — A short-handed Long Beach State squad gave first-place UC San Diego a scare before falling short in a 70-63 loss on Thursday night at UCSD’s LionTree Arena.

    Devin Askew scored a game-high 29 points to lead Long Beach (7-24 overall, 3-16 Big West), which whittled a 22-point second-half deficit to four points in the final minute but ran out of time and lost its 14th consecutive game. Derrick Michael Xzavierro added 11 points, 11 rebounds and two blocked shots, Kam Martin had eight points and Austin Johnson grabbed a season-high 12 rebounds.

    Tyler McGhie and Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones scored 20 points apiece for the Tritons (27-4, 17-2), who won their 12th straight game and clinched at least a share of their first Big West title with one game left in the regular season. Hayden Gray shot 3 for 7 from behind the arc to finish with nine points.

    With just nine players suited up – two didn’t play – for the penultimate game of the season, Long Beach produced a gutty effort but hurt its cause with 20 turnovers (13 in the first half). The Tritons opened a 21-13 first-half lead on a McGhie 3-pointer, but LBSU surged back within four before a McGhie 3-pointer at the buzzer gave UCSD a 33-23 halftime lead.

    UCSD extended its lead to 58-36 on an Aidan Burke 3-pointer with 10:48 left, but Long Beach began to battle back. LBSU used an 11-1 run to trim the margin to 63-54 on an Askew layup with 5:45 remining and he added a 3-pointer less than a minute later to make it a six-point game. The Tritons pushed their lead back to 10 points with 2:20 left, but the visitors kept fighting.

    Askew converted a pair of free throws after a UCSD technical foul, then Martin made a layup to cut the lead to 67-61 with 1:52 left. McGhie, Askew and Tait-Jones all missed 3-point shots on the next three possessions, but Askew made a jumper with 28 seconds left to get LBSU within 67-63.

    Long Beach was forced to foul, and McGhie split a pair of free throws with 26 seconds left before Martin missed a 3-pointer. McGhie then made two more free throws with 13 seconds left to finish the scoring.

    Long Beach outrebounded UCSD 41-27 but was still outscored in the paint on a night when both teams shot below 40% from the field. LBSU shot 18 for 49 from the field (36.7%) and 7 for 23 from 3-point range, while the Tritons shot 22 for 56 (39.3%) and 10 for 33 from behind the arc. Long Beach made 20 of its 22 free throws compared to 16 for 21 for UCSD.

    UP NEXT

    Long Beach closes its season with a home game against Cal Poly on Saturday at 4 p.m. UCSD can win the Big West title outright with a win at UC Davis on Saturday night or a UC Irvine loss to UC Santa Barbara.

    BIG WEST STANDINGS

    Through Thursday, March 6

    UC San Diego – 27-4, 17-2

    UC Irvine – 26-5, 16-3

    CS Northridge – 21-9, 13-6

    UC Riverside – 20-11, 13-6

    UC Santa Barbara – 19-11, 11-8

    UC Davis – 15-15, 9-10

    CS Bakersfield – 14-18, 8-12

    Hawaii – 15-15, 7-12

    Cal Poly (SLO) – 13-18, 7-12

    Long Beach State – 7-24, 3-16

    CS Fullerton – 6-25, 1-18

    ​ Orange County Register 

    News