LONG BEACH — The Cal State Northridge men’s basketball team isn’t just background music any longer.
The Matadors have taken center stage in the Big West Conference after an impressive 84-68 victory over Long Beach State on Saturday afternoon at the Walter Pyramid.
CSUN (11-3, 2-0 Big West), which was picked to finish 10th in the 11-team Big West preseason coaches’ poll, gained national attention with a 76-72 win at UCLA on Dec. 19, but the Bruins returned only one starter from a team that went 29-5 last season and reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament.
Long Beach, on the other hand, returned all five starters from last season’s 17-16 squad, had won six in a row and already posted nonconference road victories against USC, Michigan and DePaul.
“Huge win for us,” CSUN first-year coach Andy Newman said. “Just as big as that UCLA (win). In fact, if not better.”
The Matadors won their sixth consecutive game to match their longest winning streak since the 2012-13 season, and continued their best 14-game start since 2007-08, when they began 13-3.
“These guys are so coachable, so much fun to be around,” said Newman, who was hired away from Cal State San Bernardino in April. “It’s just crazy, I’ve never had a team like this before. Just so glad, so happy that we’re seeing the results of that because, man, it’s really unique as a coach to just have guys so eager to be coached.”
Dionte Bostick led the way with 21 points for CSUN, but there were plenty of co-stars.
Keonte Jones had 18 points, 10 rebounds and five assists, De’Sean Allen-Eikens contributed 14 points and Mahmoud Fofana scored 11 points off the bench, well above his season average (3.9).
LBSU (9-5, 1-1) was led by Marcus Tsohonis with 17 points, but he was limited to three points in the second half.
Aboubacar Traore was the only other Long Beach player in double figures with 11 points.
“It’s no fluke that they beat UCLA and no fluke that they came in here and handed it to us,” Long Beach State coach Dan Monson said. “They’re a good basketball team, they play really hard, they played harder than we did today and they have an identity. They’re attacking the paint and rebounding the ball at a high level and we knew that coming in and, yet, we weren’t able to disrupt that.”
CSUN came into the game leading the Big West in rebounds per game (43.8), offensive rebounds (13.4) and rebounding margin (+12.6).
The Matadors also came in leading the conference in opponent field-goal percentage (38.8) and 3-point percentage (29.1).
Those strengths came in handy against Long Beach, which shot 36.4% from the field, 2 for 22 from 3-point distance (0.09%) and was outrebounded 43-33.
“We didn’t know coming into this game if all those things were going to translate into Big West play,” Newman said. “If you do those two things, those benchmarks, then the score takes care of itself, and that’s what it did tonight.”
The Matadors gained separation with a 12-0 run that bridged the first and second halves and they further extended their lead with a 10-0 run that put them up 59-43 with 15:42 left.
Long Beach never got closer than 12 the rest of the way.
Neither team led by more than four points in the first half until the Matadors closed with an 8-0 run to take a 43-37 lead into the break.
CSUN was put in a bind from the start when starting forward Jasman Sangha collected two fouls in the opening minute.
Tsohonis scored 14 points in the first half, including a short jumper following his offensive rebound that matched Long Beach’s biggest lead at 17-13.
Bostick scored all 12 of his first-half points in the final eight minutes.
Newman had high praise for Monson and his program.
“His teams are always so well coached, so talented, so tough and so physical, and for us to come in and battle like we did, I was really proud of our guys,” he said.