{"id":119535,"date":"2026-01-04T06:55:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T06:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/119535\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T06:55:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T06:55:07","slug":"long-beach-state-cruises-to-big-west-win-against-cal-poly-the562-org","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/119535\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Beach State Cruises To Big West Win Against Cal Poly \u2013 The562.org"},"content":{"rendered":"

The562\u2019s coverage of Long Beach State athletics for the 2025-26 season is sponsored by Marilyn Bohl<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Long Beach State men\u2019s basketball program started 2026 exactly the way they wanted to on Saturday \u2013 with a win.<\/p>\n

Behind a career night from sophomore Petar Majstorovic and suffocating team defense, the Beach took an early lead and didn\u2019t look back as they beat Cal Poly 74-66 in the Gold Mine.<\/p>\n

After rain forced a venue change, LBSU (5-10, 1-2 Big West) started fast as Majstorovic scored four of his 25 points in the opening minutes as the Beach jumped to an early 6-0. The sophomore also had a double-double grabbing 10 rebounds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy guys were doing a good job finding me on the high-low,\u201d Majstorovic said. \u201cGetting me the ball into the post, and getting me easy buckets. So, like, honestly, it\u2019s all like thanks to my teammates.\u201d<\/p>\n

The quick start was reminiscent to LBSU\u2019s dominating win against Lincoln, but the biggest adjustment came on the defensive side of the ball as the Beach held Cal Poly to 26 points in the first half on 25 percent shooting from the field.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Heading into the the contest Hamad Ward, Big West leading scorer, Peter Bandelj and Cayden Ward were a formidable trio averaging 50 points combined heading into the contest. However, LBSU played stifling defense, and held the trio to a mere seven points in the first half and kept the Mustangs scoreless in the final 6:53 of the first half.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThose three guys are really good players,\u201d Long Beach State coach Chris Acker said. \u201cThey put a lot of pressure on you from the 3-point line. They drive, they get downhill \u2013 they\u2019re physical. So, you got to really stand your ground. I\u2019m just proud of our guys.<\/p>\n

After LBSU took a 15-9 lead midway through the first period, Cal Poly went on an 8-1 run to take a 17-16. Thanks to their defense, the Beach answered right back as Cole Farrell and Rob Diaz scored on turnovers as LBSU went on their own 7-0 run to take a 23-17 lead.<\/p>\n

Diaz has been a spark for the Beach after being inserted into the starting line up for the second straight game. His defense made a difference as he had two blocks and three steals.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor Rob is that his toughness is it permeates. So he\u2019s not going to do a whole lot of talking, but he\u2019s going to stand his ground on the defense,\u201d Acker said of Diaz\u2019s activeness on the defensive side of the ball. \u201cGuys are trying to drive in baskets that they normally get one on one, they weren\u2019t able to get on him.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the second half, the Beach continued to take advantage inside as they outscored the Mustangs 46-18 and pushed the lead to 25 points midway through the second half.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cal Poly started to cut into the lead but the Beach held on for their first conference win. Gavin Sykes continued his impressive freshman campaign with 16 points and Cole Farrell chipped in 10 points.<\/p>\n

LBSU will be back in action next Thursday when they head to Irvine to renew the Black and Blue rivalry.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re a really good team,\u201d Acker said. \u201cThey\u2019ve been the pillar of this league for a long period of time. Our job is just prepare and put a game plan together.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The562\u2019s coverage of Long Beach State athletics for the 2025-26 season is sponsored by Marilyn Bohl. The Long…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-119535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}