{"id":166303,"date":"2026-02-06T06:08:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T06:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/166303\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T06:08:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T06:08:07","slug":"back-and-forth-battle-with-ucsd-goes-to-the-tritons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/166303\/","title":{"rendered":"Back And Forth Battle With UCSD Goes To The Tritons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>LA JOLLA, Calif. \u2013 In a game marked by big runs on both sides, it was the home team who struck last as UC San Diego rallied in the closing minutes to defeat Long Beach State 77-74.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/longbeachstate.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/roster\/shaquil-bender\/9429\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"9429\" target=\"_blank\">Shaquil Bender<\/a> matched his season high for Long Beach State (8-16, 4-8 Big West), <a href=\"https:\/\/longbeachstate.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/roster\/petar-majstorovic\/9439\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"9439\" target=\"_blank\">Petar Majstorovic<\/a> scored 18 and <a href=\"https:\/\/longbeachstate.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/roster\/rob-diaz-iii\/9431\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"9431\" target=\"_blank\">Rob Diaz III<\/a> added 18 as the trio carried the scoring load for the Beach, but a big advantage for UC San Diego (16-8, 6-6 Big West) on the glass carried the Tritons to the win.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nIt was all Long Beach State early, as the Beach roared to a big lead. Bender and Diaz both hit early threes and a spate of Triton turnovers forced by gritty LBSU defense had Long Beach State open the game on a 13-0 run over the first four minutes.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nIt was the Tritons who bounced back next, chipping away and then going on a 12-2 run to even the score at 24-24, ultimately taking a 38-30 lead into halftime as the Beach became limited due to foul trouble.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nWith Bender and Majstorovic back to start the second half, this time it was Long Beach State&#8217;s turn to assert control. A 3-pointer from <a href=\"https:\/\/longbeachstate.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/roster\/isaiah-lewis\/9438\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"9438\" target=\"_blank\">Isaiah Lewis<\/a> tied the game at 45 in another great start to the half for the Beach, and then a Bender driving layup put Long Beach State on top by three at 50-47.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nThe two teams would then push back and forth, but with UC San Diego on top at 69-66 with just under six minutes to play, the Beach made another strong push. Going on an 8-2 run, Long Beach State took a 74-71 lead behind plays from <a href=\"https:\/\/longbeachstate.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/roster\/cole-farrell\/9432\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"9432\" target=\"_blank\">Cole Farrell<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/longbeachstate.com\/sports\/mens-basketball\/roster\/leopold-levillain\/9436\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"9436\" target=\"_blank\">Leopold Levillain<\/a>, with the team&#8217;s depth showing in the closing minutes.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nThe Tritons would have the last rally, however, as Long Beach State went cold in their final possessions and UCSD was able to recover, taking a 77-74 win with six straight free throws to secure the victory.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nMajstorovic led Long Beach State with eight rebounds, but the Tritons had 12 offensive rebounds that led to 13 points in addition to a 42-26 edge on the glass.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nLong Beach State will take Saturday off and return to Big West play on Thursday, February 12 when they host Cal State Fullerton in a rivalry game in the LBS Financial Credit Union Pyramid on ESPN+.<br \/>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LA JOLLA, Calif. \u2013 In a game marked by big runs on both sides, it was the home&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166304,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-166303","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-long-beach","8":"tag-long-beach","9":"tag-long-beach-headlines","10":"tag-long-beach-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166303","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=166303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}