Men's Basketball, Men's Sports, Sports

UC Irvine’s 7-foot-6 Ndiaye too tall of an order for LBSU offense in loss to Anteaters

Long Beach State’s home conference winning streak had to come to an end eventually, and it did in Thursday night’s Big West Conference opener against UC Irivne.

Armed with a 7-foot-6 center and just enough shooters to score points, the Anteaters survived an up-and-down second half to defeat the 49ers, 46-44, Thursday at the Walter Pyramid.

The 49ers (4-11, 0-1 Big West) have now lost three straight to the rival Anteaters, who eliminated The Beach from the Big West tournament last year and also won a late-season conference game in Irvine.

UC Irvine lost three starters from its 2012-13 team but returned and introduced enough talent to start the season as Big West favorites. The biggest introduction was 7-foot-6 freshman Mamadou Ndiaye, whose presence was felt on the defensive end throughout Thurday’s game.

Despite only scoring four points, the Senegal native

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a guy influence a game as much as he did and only score four points,” Monson said.

The 49ers had a new impact player of their own, though, as freshman Travis Hammonds, who enrolled at LBSU just two weeks ago, led the 49ers’ offensive effort with 12 points.

Hammonds was among a handful of bench players who started the game, as Monson sat his normal starters for the first few minutes because of a lackluster effort in the prior week’s practice. The bench fared well over that time, though, and with the starters’ help, the 49ers held a 24-23 lead at halftime.

The Anteaters opened up the second half with an 10-1 run, though, taking a 33-25 lead with 15:26 to go. LBSU battled back over the remainder of the game, and had a chance to tie it or send it into overtime in the last ten seconds.

After forcing a missed shot by UCI, the 49ers struggled to control the rebound immediately. By the time they got the ball in a reasonable position to take a shot, the final buzzer rang, signaling a 46-44 Anteater win.

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