{"id":128719,"date":"2026-01-11T03:41:34","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T03:41:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/128719\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T03:41:34","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T03:41:34","slug":"mens-basketball-drops-cal-state-bakersfield-as-home-win-streak-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/128719\/","title":{"rendered":"Men\u2019s Basketball Drops Cal State Bakersfield As Home Win Streak Continues"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONG BEACH, Calif. \u2013 Petar Majstorovic<\/a>, Gavin Sykes<\/a> and Rob Diaz III<\/a> all had at least 20 points for Long Beach State, as the trio guided the Beach to an 81-75 win over Cal State Bakersfield Saturday in the LBS Financial Credit Union Pyramid.
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\nLong Beach State (6-11, 2-3 Big West) had just four bench points on the night, but had key minutes from the substitutes while the starters shined on Saturday against Cal State Bakersfield (8-10, 2-4 Big West).
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\nMajstorovic worked around foul trouble all night, yet still finished with a team-high 23 points, and Gavin Sykes<\/a> added 22 points as he remains among the nation’s freshman scoring leaders, but key performances against the Runners came from freshman Leopold Levillain<\/a> and Diaz. Diaz filled the stat sheet for the Beach, scoring 20 points and adding 9 assists, 6 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 blocks and making just one turnover in a stellar night. Levillain finished with the first double-double of his young career, scored 10 points with an LBSU individual high on the year of 14 rebounds.
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\nSykes got the Beach going early and Long Beach State raced out to a 12-4 lead in the opening minutes, but Cal State Bakersfield found an answer defensively with full-court pressure, forcing the Beach into nine first-half turnovers which helped get the Runners back into the game. Taking a lead with just under 13 minutes left in the first half, Cal State Bakersfield went on a 9-2 run to push to a 26-18 lead, their largest of the game.
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\nLong Beach State was able to recover, with a Sykes 3-pointer cutting the lead back to three and then pushing out in front at 32-30 on a fast break transition bucket from Diaz. Tied at 34-34, Long Beach State closed the half on an 8-2 run to lead 42-36 at the break behind 17 first-half points from Sykes.
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\nPushing the lead to a high of 16 with just over 12 minutes to play, Long Beach State had the contest mostly in control, but the Runners made a late push as Majstorovic was limited to 13 minutes in the second half with continuing foul issues. A huge offensive rebound and putback from Levillain put the Beach up 8 with three minutes remaining, and LBSU closed out the game from the line for an 81-75 victory, their third straight win at home.
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\nHome is where the Beach will stay for one more game in the current homestand, hosting UC Riverside at 7 p.m. on Thursday, January 15 on ESPN+.
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