After beating UC Davis at their gym last month, the Aggies returned the favor to the Long Beach State men’s basketball team, 82-76, Thursday night at the Walter Pyramid in front of 1,953 fans.
Vince Oliver, the third-leading scorer in the Big West Conference coming in, was hot inside-and-out for the Aggies (10-12, 5-4 Big West Conference), scoring a career-high 33 points. Joe Harden, the fifth-leading scorer (14.8 and 14.1 points per game, respectively) added 18.
“He’s been terrific the entire conference,” Davis head coach Gary Stewart said of Oliver. “Nobody has played better in my tenure than that. He was sensational.”
Davis came into the game leading the nation in free-throw shooting at a 80.9 percent clip. The Aggies were in the bonus from the 13:35 mark of the second half and they made Long Beach pay, knocking down 24-of-31 second-half attempts.
The Beach was whistled for 20 second-half fouls.
“We just didn’t have a good mental awareness tonight,” LBSU head coach Dan Monson said. “It ended up costing us, especially at the defensive end.
“We really let a good offensive team get in the flow and gave up [51 points] the second half. It’s just embarrassing.”
Long Beach crushed Davis in rebounding, 51-29, including 23-5 on the offensive end but committed 14 turnovers and made just 38.6 percent of its shots (27-of-70).
For Long Beach State (11-10, 6-3 Big West Conference) freshman forward T.J. Robinson had another monster game, registering a career-high 24 points and 12 rebounds.
Robinson came in averaging 11.6 PPG and 9.5 RPG in his last five games as he has entered the starting line-up and seen his minutes continue to increase.
“My confidence is high,” Robinson said. “They’re looking for me at the block and I’m executing well. They are looking for me more so I’m in more of a flow.
“I like the fact that I’m starting now because I’m in the flow and I continue to be in better spots because of it.”
Fellow freshman standout Larry Anderson also had a double-double with a career-night in scoring, pouring in 18 and grabbing 10 rebounds.
Eugene Phelps added nine points and nine rebounds.
It was a 66-66 game with 3:13 to play but Long Beach could never gain the lead. An Oliver 3-pointer with 1:03 to play gave UCD a 73-69 lead that led to a barrage of Long Beach fouls and repeated trips to the free-throw line for Davis where they iced the game.
The loss drops The Beach into a tie atop the Big West with Cal State Northridge. After starting the season 7-1 at the Pyramid, the ‘Niners have dropped three in a row at home.
Big West teams are 23-18 on the road in conference play this season.
‘Niners leading scorer Donovan Morris played 13 minutes after missing Saturday’s game at UC Irvine with a right foot injury and the stomach flu but managed just five points on 1-of-8 shooting.
Long Beach trailed 31-30 at halftime. They got off to a fast start leading 12-5 at the 14:11 mark of the first half but a 16-1 Aggies run had them trailing 21-13 with 9:08 to play.
The Aggies led 31-23 with three minutes to play but LBSU closed it to one on a Anderson put-back just before the buzzer sounded.
Long Beach made just 9-of-36 field goal attempts in the first half, including 2-of-13 from 3-point range but were overpowering in the paint.
LBSU dominated the glass to the tune of 30 rebounds to just 17 for Davis. The Beach had out-rebounded UCD, 13-0, on the offensive boards.
Robinson had nine points and ten rebounds in 19 first-half minutes. Morris had four points in six minutes of action — his first in a week.
Oliver was the high scorer with 11 for UC Davis.
Davis is now 5-8 in games decided by nine points or less and 3-1 on the road in Big West action.
Long Beach returns to action Saturday night when they host the Pacific Tigers (12-8, 5-4 Big West) at 7:05 p.m.