By One of the strongest performances of the season so far from Long Beach State men’s basketball quickly turned into a heartbreaking 80-75 loss to UC Irvine in a matter of minutes on the floor of the Walter Pyramid Thursday night.
The Pyramid reopened its doors after a two-week hiatus following structural damage as The Beach welcomed the 18-3 (8-1 in conference play) conference-leading Anteaters to town. The Black & Blue rivalry brought 2,012 fans into the arena to witness a thrilling contest.
The energy of the packed building was felt early on and translated to a strong opening frame with The Beach’s backcourt connecting on three consecutive triples to begin the game.
Senior guard Devin Askew led all scorers at the half with 13 points as he was going at the Anteaters aggressively, hitting multiple shots from the mid-range with defenders draped on him.
LBSU senior guard Devin Askew finished with a team-high 18 points against UCI. The Beach lost in their return to the Pyramid on Thursday night by a final score of 80-75. Photo by Mark Siquig.
A 10-0 UCI run capped off by back-to-back threes by sophomore guard Myles Che late in the first half propelled it to a seven-point advantage. LBSU countered the run with a push to even the score at the half at 34 apiece.
During halftime, a reversed call initially ruled a goaltend multiple minutes prior was overruled, subtracting two points from LBSU and giving UCI a two-point lead at 34-32, two points that wound up being critical down the stretch.
In 42 minutes of action, sophomore forward Derrick Michael Xzavierro put together his best showing in an LBSU uniform with a career-high 14 rebounds to go along with 12 points and three blocks.
“I come to the game with the mindset, I need this win,” Xzavierro said. “I’m trying to play hard every single time, if I make a mistake I just want to move on. Rebounding is my role.”
A three from junior guard TJ Wainwright put The Beach up 64-54 with five minutes left to play. From that point, the UCI outscored LBSU 14-4.
LBSU junior guard TJ Wainwright finished the game with 14 points, but it was not enough to beat the UCI Anteaters. Wainwright is averaging 13.2 points this season for The Beach. Photo by Mark Siquig.
Che led the charge getting to his spots on the floor and nailing jump shots to invoke a 7-0 UCI run.
The Anteaters had the opportunity to hold the ball for the final shot of the game and The Beach forced a miss from Che and secured the rebound with five seconds left. Once Askew crossed halfcourt on the attack, head coach Chris Acker used his final timeout with three seconds remaining.
With a crowd of 2000 plus on their feet, Askew was called for traveling, turning over the ball, and giving UCI one last shot with a second to play. The Anteaters failed to convert, missing a foul line jumper and sending the game to overtime.
“We turn the ball over with those three seconds left, we drew up a play and we didn’t execute it, maybe it was the way I drew it up,” Acker said. “We haven’t been in those situations often, I’ll get better to make sure we are more organized in those situations.”
A triple from UCI redshirt senior forward Devin Tillis at the start of overtime deflated the home crowd, as an uphill battle ensued in the period.
“I think Irvine has four of five seniors on the court, they’ve been through a lot of battles together,” Acker said. “When you look at the statistics across the country, we have the lowest rate of continuity, we don’t have a lot of guys that have played together for a long time.”
A stolen inbounds pass from graduate forward Austin Johnson created a final opportunity for The Beach down just a single possession, trailing 78-75.
Their first three-point attempt rimmed out and was rebounded by Johnson and passed back out to Askew for a look at a contested triple that fell short, as did the overtime comeback.
It’s The Beach’s fifth consecutive loss and seventh in their last eight games, dropping them to 3-7 and 7-15 overall. LBSU looks to carry over the positives from this contest into their next game on the road against UC Santa Barbara on Saturday.
