Long Beach State men's basketball edges Cal Poly, 73-70

LONG BEACH >> The Long Beach State men’s basketball team held on to serve up a dish of revenge by beating Cal Poly, 73-70, on Thursday night in Walter Pyramid. The Mustangs won in double overtime last month when the 49ers visited San Luis Obispo.

The Big West Conference victory keeps Long Beach State (13-12, 7-3) alone in third place, just two games back of first place. Cal Poly (8-15, 2-8) is now tied with Cal State Fullerton at the bottom of the Big West standings.

Senior Nick Faust led Long Beach State again with 21 points. Travis Hammonds added 15 points off the bench, while Gabe Levin and Branford Jones also scored in double digits.

Long Beach State led by as many as 17 points, and a flurry of 3-pointers padded the lead in the second half. The 49ers went 23 for 45 from the field. With Long Beach State leading 50-40 and less than 10 minutes left, Hammonds hit back-to-back shots from long distance before blocking a shot at the other end and then finding AJ Spencer for another 3-pointer to push the lead to 59-42.

Cal Poly cut the lead to seven points with less than three minutes to play, but Faust hit a 3-pointer and Hammonds drew a charge at the other end. The Mustangs couldn’t get closer because they were 13 for 29 from the free-throw line. Long Beach State also struggled, going 19 for 37.

The Long Beach State defense was strong for most of the night, keeping Cal Poly around 30 percent shooting from the field and limiting the Mustangs to 20 points in the paint.

Long Beach State attacked the basket early and used a 13-0 run to take an 18-8 lead. The Mustangs closed the half with two quick 3-pointers from Reese Morgan and David Nwaba, who combined to score all but three of the 24 first-half Cal Poly points. Nwaba scored a game-high 24 points.

The first seven Mustang shots from the field were from behind the arc, and they went 5 for 15 from 3-point range in the first half.

Cal Poly cut the Long Beach State lead to 18-16 with about 10 minutes left in the half, but an and-1 layup from Travis Hammonds stopped the run. Faust took over from there and scored on an unbalanced drive to the basket to give Long Beach State a 35-24 lead at halftime. The 49ers scored 22 of their first 35 points in the paint, thanks to the aggressive offense.

Cal Poly handed Long Beach State a dramatic double-overtime loss in January, 96-92. Six different Mustangs scored in double digits in that game.

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Long Beach State visits fourth-place UC Davis on Saturday.

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