Aboubacar Traore finished with 23 points, 22 rebounds and 6 assists while Lassina Traore added 16 points and 17 rebounds as the duo helped lead Long Beach State basketball to a rivalry road win to open up Big West conference action on the road Thursday night at Cal State Fullerton, 81-71.
The two Traores combined for 39 rebounds, five more than the entire Cal State Fullerton (7-6, 0-1 Big West) squad as Long Beach State (9-4, 1-0 Big West) began conference action with a road win. The Beach has now won six straight games and has won five true road contests, tied for the nation’s lead.
For Aboubacar, he joined Lassina and Michael Zeno as the only Long Beach State players to have a 20/20 night since 1983, scoring a career-high 23 points while grabbing 20 or more rebounds for the third time in his career, moving up to 7th all-time in school history in rebounding. Lassina meanwhile finished with his seventh double-double of the season while notching a career-high 17 rebounds.
It wasn’t always straightforward, as road games rarely are. The Titans forced Long Beach State into nine turnovers in the first half, and opened up a 10-point lead in the first ten minutes at 21-11. Long Beach State rallied however, responding with a 15-2 run capped by a lay-in from Aboubacar Traore to take a 24-23 lead, their first of the night. Another push in the closing minutes would put the Beach up by as many as 11 before the Titans scored the final five points of the first to trail 38-32.
That momentum carried for Cal State Fullerton who reclaimed the lead, and were still in front as late as the eight-minute mark at 59-55 after a Max Jones 3-pointer. In crunch time the Beach found the answers they needed, holding the Titans off of the board over the next six minutes to decide the contest. Starting a 14-0 run an Isa Silva floater, the Beach reclaimed the lead at 61-59 and would push the lead to 10 at 69-59 on an AJ George 3-pointer before the snapped the run, but the damage was done.
Aboubacar Traore closed out his career night with a slam to extend the lead to 12 with 1:24 to play, and the Beach grabbed another win over Cal State Fullerton. In addition to the Traores, Marcus Tsohonis added 17 points and Jadon Jones finished with 11 points along with a pair of blocks.
Long Beach State will return to Long Beach and host their conference home opener before the new year, hosting CSUN on Saturday. Tip time has been moved up to 1 p.m. as the game will be simulcast on Spectrum SportsNet in addition to ESPN+.
