Long Beach State is back on the road for two this weekend, where the Beach has been one of the best squads in the nation, starting the week tied with five other teams with six true road victories this season. The Beach will start at UC San Diego tonight before a nationally televised contest on ESPNU at UC Santa Barbara Saturday.
Thursday’s contest is the first meeting since a triple overtime epic at Liontree arena. Marcus Tsohonis set a program record with 46 points, both Traores finished with double-doubles and Maddox Monson fed AJ George for the decisive basket in the third overtime in the 112-110 win for the Beach.
Aboubacar Traore was named the Big West Player of the Week, the second player and third honor this season for LBSU. Traore set a career-high with 30 points on the road at Cal Poly and followed with a double-double against UC Riverside as the Beach improved to 3-1 in Big West play.
Aboubacar’s big week continued a massive start to Big West play for the junior. Traore now ranks in the conference’s Top 7 in scoring, rebounding, assists, steals and blocks in league play.
Career night from Aboubacar Traore leads Beach past Cal Poly
It was another dominant night from the Traores on the road, as Aboubacar Traore finished with a career-high 30 points and Lassina Traore had a massive double-double with 20 points and 19 rebounds to guide the Beach past Cal Poly 89-82.
Long Beach State (10-5, 2-1 Big West) dominated inside, putting up 50 points in the paint and out-rebounding the Mustangs 55 to 30. Cal Poly (4-11, 0-3 Big West) kept close with the long ball, making 13 out of 29 3-pointers, finishing the night at 44.8 percent from distance.
One hot streak for the Mustangs came straight from the tip, as Cal Poly took a 12-7 lead in the opening minutes. Long Beach State rallied with a 9-0 run to take the lead. The Beach would hold the lead the rest of the half, opening up an edge as large as nine points, but the Mustangs rallied in the closing seconds of the half to trail by one, 38-37.
Double-Double nights from the Traores lead Long Beach State past UC Riverside
Long Beach State had five players in double-figures and both Traores finished with double-doubles as Long Beach State pulled away from UC Riverside in the second half for an 83-75 win over the Highlanders in the Walter Pyramid in front of a great Youth Day crowd of 2,546.
Long Beach State (11-5, 3-1 Big West) had a dominant day inside finishing with 46 points in the paint and doing a nice job defensively on the perimeter against UC Riverside (6-10, 1-3 Big West) who ended the game 6-for-36 from three, shooting just 16.7% on the night.
The contest was tight throughout the first half, as Aboubacar Traore picked up two quick fouls and played fewer than five minutes in the opening 20. Neither team was able to break away, with 14 lead changes and no lead larger than four points for either team over the first half. Lassina Traore did hit his first 3-pointer of his career (now 1-for-1) to spark a rally and the Beach held the halftime lead.
