Long Beach State men's basketball team stung in second half at UC Irvine

IRVINE >> UC Irvine shooting guard Luke Nelson rose and he fired, sinking any hope of a Long Beach State comeback victory with each 3-pointer that ripped through the net.

A three-point deficit early in the second half quickly tued into eight, then 11 and then 15. And once 7-foot-6 center Mamadou Ndiaye hit a 13-foot tu-around jumper, it was time for Long Beach to tip its hat.

When all was said and done, the 49ers fell to Irvine, 90-67, at the Bren Center Wednesday night, dropping to third place in Big West Conference play.

“Luke Nelson just broke the game open,” Long Beach State coach Dan Monson said. “He’s a rhythm player and we let him get into a rhythm.”

Describing Nelson’s performance with the word “rhythm” might have been an understatement. The 6-foot-3 junior made 9 of his 10 field goal attempts, including 6-of-7 from 3-point range to the tune of 25 points.

The Anteaters were on fire as a team, as well, especially in the second half. Irvine shot a blistering 79.2 percent (19-of-24) from the field over the final 20 minutes and finished the game shooting at a 64.2 percent clip.

“We were up 20-11 (in the first half) and made a couple of defensive mistakes,” Monson said. “And they took advantage of it.”

Irvine also took advantage of a difficult shooting night from Long Beach State senior Nick Faust. He scored a season-low three points on 1-of-9 shooting after being hampered with foul trouble in the first half. Faust scored the first basket of the game, but picked up his second foul at the 15:14 mark of half.

“It’s tough to go on the road and win when you’re leading scorer only has one basket,” Monson said. “He had a bad second foul, then had to sit and play cautious.”

One of the few bright spots on the night for Long Beach State was the play of point guard Justin Bibbins. The 5-foot-6 sophomore poured in a career-high 26 points, including all 15 free throws.

Bibbins wasn’t in the mood to offer much insight on his career night, however, as the loss stung enough to take away any cause for celebration.

“At the end of the day it doesn’t mean much,” Bibbins said of his scoring outburst. “We just have to move on from this game and get better.”

Travis Hammonds was the only other 49er to score in double figures, finishing with 18 points.

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Long Beach State will look to get back in the win column on Saturday at home against UC Riverside.

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