LONG BEACH — The Long Beach State men’s basketball team won’t get the opportunity to defend its Big West Tournament title in a few weeks, its fading hopes officially extinguished with yet another heartbreaking defeat.
Jemel Jones made a contested jumper as time expired and Cal State Bakersfield beat Long Beach, 88-87 in overtime, on Thursday night at the Walter Pyramid. It was the 12th consecutive loss for LBSU, with four of the last eight coming by two points or fewer and three of its last five home games going into OT.
Long Beach (7-22 overall, 3-14 Big West) will miss the eight-team conference tournament for the first time since 2004 and becomes the only team in the modern era to go from winning the event one year to failing to qualify the following season.
LBSU’s Derrick Michael Xzavierro had blocked a layup attempt by Marvin McGhee IV in the final seconds of OT, but the ball went out of bounds and the Roadrunners retained possession. With 2.7 seconds left, Kadar Waller threw an inbounds pass from the baseline to the right elbow, where Jones caught the ball, spun inside and hit the game-winning shot over two defenders.
Jones finished with 37 points and five rebounds for the Roadrunners (13-17, 7-11), shooting 14 for 23 from the field (1 for 5 from 3-point range) and 8 for 11 from the free-throw line. Corey Stephenson added 15 points.
TJ Wainwright shot 6 for 10 from 3-point range and had 22 points to pace Long Beach (7-22, 3-14), while Devin Askew finished with 19 points on 4-of-14 shooting to go with eight assists and two steals. Andrew Nagy added a career-high 14 points off the bench, while Xzavierro had 12 points and 10 rebounds and Austin Johnson added 13 points and six rebounds.
Long Beach trailed by nine early in the second half but used a 12-2 run to grab a 50-49 lead. Long Beach kept rolling and opened its own nine-point lead (63-54) on an Austin Johnson turnaround jumper with 9:50 left. Bakersfield answered with a 9-1 run to get back within one with 7:57 left, then LBSU went ice cold, failing to make a shot from the field for the rest of regulation.
Both teams became reliant on free throws, and the Roadrunners’ Fidelis Okereke tied the score at 68-all with 2:20 left. A pair of Xzavierro free throws gave Long Beach a 72-70 lead with 36 seconds left, but Waller made a pair of his own to knot the score again with 32 seconds left. Askew drove the baseline in the final seconds of in regulation but his possible game-winning layup was blocked.
In a game that included 15 lead changes and seven ties, the teams combined for 31 points in the 5-minute overtime. Askew hit a 3-pointer then added a pair of free throws to give Long Beach an 87-84 lead with less than a minute left, but Jones responded with a jumper with 46 seconds left. Bakersfield got the ball back after Wainwright missed a 3-point attempt with 26 seconds left, setting the stage for the final moments.
Bakersfield shot 6 for 8 from the field in overtime, going 3 for 4 from behind the arc.
UP NEXT
Long Beach State plays at rival UC Irvine on Saturday at 7 p.m.
BIG WEST STANDINGS
Through Thursday, Feb. 27
UC San Diego – 25-4, 15-2
UC Irvine – 24-5, 14-3
CS Northridge – 20-8, 12-5
UC Riverside – 19-11, 12-6
UC Santa Barbara – 19-10, 11-7
UC Davis – 15-13, 9-8
CS Bakersfield – 13-17, 7-11
Hawaii – 14-14, 6-11
Cal Poly (SLO) – 11-18, 5-12
Long Beach State – 7-22, 3-14
CS Fullerton – 6-23, 1-16
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