LBSU junior guard Cole Farrell gets stretched out by teammate sophomore forward Petar Majstorovic after taking a hard fall at Viejas Arena on Nov. 4. Junior Contreras | Long Beach Current
San Diego State (1-0) continued its 18-year streak of defeating unranked teams in season openers after overpowering Long Beach State (0-1) 77-45 on Tuesday, Nov. 4, at Viejas Arena.
With just one returner on an otherwise entirely new roster from last season, LBSU head coach Chris Acker showed no player is bigger than the team early on.
As sophomore guard Christian Jones shot a three from the top of the key, the Angelina College transfer turned to celebrate to the Aztec faithful as his shot bounced off the rim for an empty trey, forcing Acker to sub Jones out immediately with 17 minutes left in the first half.
LBSU sophomore forward and Syracuse transfer Petar Majstorovic began his Beach debut hot, as his six early points gave The Beach a 9-7 lead after he knocked down a three to cap off a 6-0 run.
The Beach found themselves down 17-11 before four-straight points from LBSU junior forward and lone returner from last season, Derrick Michael Xzavierro, and a three from Majstorovic completed a 7-0 run to put LBSU ahead 18-11.
“We were playing the way that we had been practicing,” Acker said. “We knew that it was going to be a tough ball game and I thought we were right there early to start the game and I thought we showed that we can compete.”
LBSU kept it back and forth as there were seven lead changes in the opening period, but lost control of the ship as 13 first-half turnovers sunk The Beach, leading to 16 points off turnovers for the Aztecs.
Back-to-back wide open wing threes for SDSU junior guard and Mountain West Preseason Player of the Year, Miles Byrd, contributed to a 12-2 Aztec run as they took a commanding 32-22 lead in front of a raucous home crowd of 11,644.
SDSU student section fan holds up “Losing Basketball School” referring to the LBSU abbreviation as SDSU led the entire second half at Viejas Arena on Nov. 4. Junior Contreras | Long Beach Current
“We gave Byrd way too many wide open threes,” Acker said. “When a guy’s making shots, and then they go on the run, and they’re defending at the level that they’re defending at, it makes it really tough for you to get back in that game.”
Mistakes on the defensive glass for The Beach allowed Aztec freshman forward Tae Simmons to gather three offensive rebounds on top of eight points as SDSU closed the back end of the first half strong with a 40-25 lead.
LBSU continued to be shoved under water as SDSU drowned The Beach with an 11-0 second half run with four different Aztec scorers as they led 59-34.
As a team, SDSU shot 47% from three as they had five different scorers hit double figures to end their victorious night.
“I wanted to play against a team that I knew was going to be really good, that was going to challenge us…so that we could see…figure out areas we got to improve in,” Acker said.
A bright spot for The Beach was Majstorovic as he finished with a 13-point double-double, being LBSU’s only double-digit scorer and rebounder on the night.
“Honestly, I feel like we can do a lot better than this,” Majstorovic said. “We’ve been working the entire summer to get to a better level than we were tonight.”
Majstorovic is not worried about the team’s future, as he claims they have a strong mentality and will be better for their upcoming away game against Fresno State on Saturday, Nov. 8.