SANTA BARBARA — The Long Beach State men’s basketball team started the day with bad news, and things got worse from there.
Forward Derrick Michael Xzavierro was ruled out with an injury before the team’s game at UC Santa Barbara on Saturday night, then Long Beach got blown off the court in an 85-54 loss at the Thunderdome.
Long Beach (7-15 overall, 3-7 Big West), which lost its sixth consecutive game, started slow and never recovered. LBSU trailed 14-2 just over five minutes into the game. Kam Martin hit a pair of jumpers, and back-to-back 3-pointers from Devin Askew pulled Long Beach within 17-14 with 10:39 left in the first half.
UC Santa Barbara (14-8, 6-5 Big West) responded with a 6-0 run to push the margin back to nine points and had a 38-26 lead at halftime.
Long Beach suffered another setback when Austin Johnson was injured in a collision, leaving the visitors without their normal starting frontcourt for the rest of the night. The Gauchos took advantage, opening the second half with a 10-0 run for a 22-point lead and cruised from there, leading by as much as 34.
Askew had 23 points and 10 rebounds for his second double-double of the season. Martin (13 points) was the only other Long Beach player to score in double figures.
Stephan Swenson led UCSB with 20 points and five assists. Cole Anderson added 15 points and Deuce Turner scored 11. Kenny Pohto had nine points and five rebounds and Jason Fontenot II contributed eight points and seven rebounds.
Long Beach shot just 30% from the field (16 for 53), including a 6-for-21 showing from 3-point range, and was outrebounded 42-27. UCSB shot 53.6% from the field (30 for 56) and 12 for 21 from behind the arc.
Each team had 13 turnovers, but LBSU was outscored 28-10 in the paint and 18-9 in points off turnovers.
UP NEXT
LBSU will return to the Walter Pyramid for two home games next week, hosting UC Davis on Thursday night before facing Cal State Northridge on Saturday at 4 p.m.
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