By FULLERTON, Calif – Long Beach State put a halt to its eight-game skid with a 73-56 win to open up conference play on rival Cal State Fullerton’s home floor.
Both teams have had sluggish beginnings to their season with LBSU starting 1-8 with its lone win coming in the season opener against Division III La Verne, and CSUF sitting at 2-6 going into Thursday’s matchup.
Fullerton students and fans alike filled the Titan Gym almost to capacity dressed in orange shirts that read “Beat the Beach.” By the seven-minute mark of the second half, many of those same fans had already gone towards the exits with The Beach dominating and ultimately pulling away.
The Beach’s leading scorer senior guard Devin Askew, who entered averaging 16.8 points per game, came in and set the tone on both ends to open up the game.
He connected on a mid-range jump shot then stole the inbound pass for an easy lay-up to start the game.
Both teams fed off the electricity in the building early on and back-to-back dunks by Fullerton’s junior guard Kobe Young lit up the arena, bringing ‘The Stampede’ student section to their feet.
The building was rocking heavily against The Beach, but they had an offensive response to quiet the crowd throughout the night.
Long Beach State got things done uncharacteristically by outscoring Fullerton 18-3 from beyond the arc. Freshman guard Kam Martin went 3-6 from deep on his way to 11 points, hitting a few timely three-pointers.
“We came out and tried to punch them in the mouth, to begin with, just stay together and play our game, and just worry about us and we’ll come out with the W,” Martin said.
As the first half neared conclusion, intensity peaked following a foul call on Titan junior guard Donovan Oday who looked like he had a clean rejection on Martin. This left CSUF head coach Dedrique Taylor frantic in disagreement, Martin would miss both free throws to the delightment of the crowd.
Yet again, an Askew three-ball on the next trip down the court settled things and put The Beach in front by nine and up 26-17.
Askew led all scorers with a game-high 16 points in the victorious effort. LBSU held the nine-point advantage at 33-24 going into the locker room at halftime.
After an elbow injury in the final minute of the first half, sophomore forward Derrick Michael Xzavierro returned to the game with a padded arm sleeve and proceeded to knock down a triple in the opening minutes of the second half.
DMX finished with nine points and posted a game-high nine rebounds.
LBSU head coach Chris Acker went with the majority of his starters during the latter part of the second half to ensure a proper close-out, even with its lead exceeding 20 points in various instances.
The Beach kept their foot on the gas pedal to close out The Titans with an aggressive offensive attack that led to 25 free throw attempts.
Graduate forward Austin Johnson added the exclamation point in the closing minutes with a thunderous two-handed slam on CSUF senior forward John Mikey Square, amping up The Beach’s bench.
“I think the Thanksgiving break was huge for us,” Acker said. “Just to get away from what was going on in the preseason, it was good to get in the gym, regroup and practice. We hadn’t practiced for a month, so to get that opportunity to do so for three or four days was huge for us.”
Long Beach State now holds a 1-0 record in the Big West with its win in the 15-Mile Rivalry as LBSU looks to build off this momentum heading into its Saturday contest at home against Hawai’i.
