Long Beach State had a big week with the announcement of their iconic Pyramid being renamed the LBS Financial Credit Union Pyramid following an $8.5 million sponsorship. On the court on Friday night, the picture was a little less pretty for the school\u2019s men\u2019s basketball team, as the Beach (1-5) fell to Montana State in the Battle at the Beach championship game, 78-72.<\/p>\n
Long Beach State head coach Chris Acker was frustrated to see his team hang tough in the game before letting it slip away in the final moments as a 9-0 run sealed it for the Grizzlies.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe played against a team that was kind of in the same situation where they\u2019re trying to close basketball games,\u201d said Acker. \u201cTonight they figure out how to win. I think that\u2019s where we are as a program, we know we can be in games we\u2019re just not at the point where we figured out how to close games. Ultimately that\u2019s on me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Beach trailed 61-59 late in the game thanks to a heroic effort from true freshman Gavin Sykes out of Sacramento\u2019s Modesto Christian. Sykes scored 14 of the Beach\u2019s 16 points in the middle section of the second half, and had the Beach within a few points. But the Grizzlies took control of the game with a 9-2 run as they drove to the basket and earned free throws, and secured several offensive rebounds down the stretch that let them run the clock out.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt came down to rebounding and taking care of the ball,\u201d said Acker.<\/p>\n
Having come from a very successful San Diego State program, it was clear that Acker was frustrated by some of the \u201cmeeting the moment\u201d breakdowns from his team.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has to really come from players in the sense that you have to come together and understand the moment,\u201d he said. \u201cWe had two or three moments where it\u2019s an opportunity to get a rebound or take care of the ball\u2026I feel like we understand that and we want to do it, it\u2019s just a matter of actually getting it done. When you\u2019re on the other end of the floor and there\u2019s no help that\u2019s when you have to be at your closest as a group. We\u2019re still working on that chemistry because ultimately that was a chemistry win for Montana State.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Grizzlies did open the door for the Beach, missing a few free throws in the final minutes. But the Beach \u2018s late push was only able to close the lead to one possession for a moment, with the Grizzlies calling a timeout and getting a layup with an and-one foul out of the timeout. Acker emphasized his frustration over the late-game struggles for his squad.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was pretty emotional in the locker room after that loss, because I feel like we\u2019re not meeting the moment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The loss spoiled a career night for Sykes, who had 24 points on 9\/16 shooting. Shaquil Bender had 17 points and Cole Farrell had 10.<\/p>\n
Rob Diaz III didn\u2019t score but did provide a spark off the bench in the first half with three assists, which stood up as a team high. Petar Majstorovic had a team-high eight boards for the Beach. The Grizzlies had five scorers in double-digits, led by Jeremiah Davis\u2019 15 points.<\/p>\n
The Beach led at halftime after a buzzer-beating three by Isaiah Lewis, but gave up 43 points in the second half to the high-powered Grizzlies offense. Acker praised Sykes\u2019 performance in the loss.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis dude is a high-level freshman, he\u2019s a star,\u201d he said. \u201che\u2019s an unbelievable human being and a competitor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sykes didn\u2019t want to puff his chest out too much about his career night.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve learned to step into a role and be me out there,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m more concerned with the defensive side. I want to get a real college win and come into the locker room with the guys and celebrate and I haven\u2019t gotten to do that yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
The biggest roar of the night didn\u2019t come for any of the NCAA players, but for a young athlete there with the YMCA as part of the YMCA of Greater Long Beach Night being held in the Pyramid. During a scoring competition the young player hit three straight three-pointers, which at that time equaled Long Beach State\u2019s team tally.<\/p>\n
Asked how to address his team\u2019s ability to \u201cmeet the moment,\u201d Acker smiled. \u201cYou throw a temper tantrum in the locker room after a loss so they know how important it is, then you go watch film on where you could meet the moment, and trust that they\u2019ll get tired of the same story over and over again\u2026not make excuses for not getting it done, just constantly having those conversations\u2026we want it right now, but you can\u2019t jump the process and that\u2019s what we\u2019re in right now, we\u2019re in the process.\u201d<\/p>\n
Long Beach State travels to Portland State on Wednesday at 7pm for an ESPN+ streamed game before returning to the Pyramid on Nov. 30 at 2pm to host University of San Diego.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Long Beach State had a big week with the announcement of their iconic Pyramid being renamed the LBS…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-64990","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\/64990","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=64990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}