{"id":64933,"date":"2025-11-22T06:39:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T06:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/64933\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T06:39:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T06:39:08","slug":"beach-offense-stalls-late-in-tight-loss-to-montana-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/64933\/","title":{"rendered":"Beach offense stalls late in tight loss to Montana State"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

LBSU freshman forward Leopold Levillain drives to the basket in The Beach’s 78-72 loss to Montana State on Friday, Nov. 21 at the LBS Financial Credit Union Pyramid. Rehansa Kulatilleke | Long Beach Current<\/p>\n

A breakout performance from freshman guard Gavin Sykes<\/a> could not deliver Long Beach State men\u2019s basketball to a win over Montana State on Friday, Nov. 21, falling 78-72 to conclude the Battle at The Beach Tournament at the LBS Financial Credit Union Pyramid.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After a nearly year-long drought, The Beach (1-5) came up just short of recording consecutive wins for the first time in 334 days.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in a phase where we\u2019re trying to figure out how to win,\u201d LBSU head coach Chris Acker said. \u201cWe know we can play hard enough to hang around, we\u2019re just not at the point where we figured out how to close games.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

LBSU junior guard Rob Diaz III handles the ball in The Beach\u2019s 78-72 loss to Montana State on Friday, Nov. 21. Rehansa Kulatilleke | Long Beach Current<\/p>\n

The mid-range shotmaking of junior guard Cole Farrell<\/a> led the LBSU scoring attack early. After knocking down two smooth jumpers, Farrell relied on his pump fake to get to the cup for a quick six points in three minutes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After Farrell kept LBSU close early, the Bobcats (2-4) broke away with a 14-4 run to push their lead to 30-21, as The Beach\u2019s shooting disadvantage was on full display in the first half.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Facing a Montana State team that leads the Big Sky Conference in three-point shooting percentage, LBSU was outmatched from beyond the arc, ranking just eighth in three-point makes in the Big West entering Friday\u2019s contest.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen [Montana State] is running and they\u2019re organized and letting it fly with confidence, it\u2019s hard to rectify that by just trading baskets,\u201d Acker said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bobcat senior guard Jed Miller<\/a> and graduate guard Davian Brown<\/a>, ranking second and fourth in the Big Sky in three-point makes respectively, each hit a pair of threes in the first, while The Beach were held without a long-range make until just under four minutes remaining in the half.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, after a timeout from Acker following a defensive breakdown, LBSU seemed to solve its offensive woes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

LBSU freshman forward Leopold Levillain has his shot contested at the rim in The Beach\u2019s 78-72 loss to Montana State on Friday, Nov. 21. Rehansa Kulatilleke | Long Beach Current<\/p>\n

An emphatic three-point play on a strong drive to the basket from sophomore forward Petar Majstorovic<\/a> got the party started, sparking a 16-5 run.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The glass lid on the rim seemed to disappear for The Beach, who hit three threes in their extended run, capped off by a buzzer-beating make from junior guard Isaiah Lewis<\/a> to take a 37-35 lead into the half.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Bobcats continued to rain threes in the second half, with Brown hitting from distance twice early to recapture the lead, but The Beach were kept afloat by a scorching second half performance from Sykes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In just the sixth game of his career, Sykes\u2019 ability to break down Bobcat defenders with his dribble in conjunction with his hot shooting night rendered him unguardable for Montana State, as he racked up 19 points in the half to lead LBSU.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve learned to really just step into my role and just really be me out there,\u201d Sykes said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Down five with six minutes remaining, LBSU\u2019s offense went cold, scoring just two points over a nearly four minute stretch.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, down 72-65, a quick five points from graduate guard Shaquil Bender<\/a> gave The Beach a breath of life.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

LBSU graduate guard Shaquil Bender finishes over a Montana State defender on Friday, Nov. 21 at the LBS Financial Credit Union Pyramid. Rehansa Kulatilleke | Long Beach Current<\/p>\n

With LBSU trailing 73-70 with 23 seconds remaining and a chance to get one stop and have a shot to tie it at regulation, a strong and-one finish from Montana State redshirt senior guard Patrick Mcmahon<\/a> through Majstorovic was the dagger to end The Beach\u2019s hopes of a comeback.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Following the loss, Acker emphasized how the program\u2019s next step in its process to potentially string together wins later in the season is better execution in critical moments.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou go back and you watch film, and you show the guys the opportunities that we\u2019ve had and where we could have met the moment, \u201c Acker said. \u201cYou just trust that ultimately they\u2019re going to get tired of hearing the same story over and over again and it\u2019ll click at the right time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sykes led The Beach with a career-high 24 points, while Bender added 17 on 6-for-15 shooting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cScoring points is cool and all that, but at the end of the day if we don\u2019t win it doesn\u2019t matter,\u201d Sykes said. \u201cI still want to get a real college win and come into the locker room and celebrate with the guys and I haven\u2019t really done that yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Montana State redshirt junior guard Jeremiah Davis<\/a> and graduate forward Chris Hodges<\/a> led the Bobcats in the win with 15 and 14 points, respectively.\u00a0<\/p>\n

LBSU will next head to Portland University on Nov. 26 in pursuit of its second win of the season. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LBSU freshman forward Leopold Levillain drives to the basket in The Beach’s 78-72 loss to Montana State on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-64933","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\/64933","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=64933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}