The562’s coverage of Long Beach State athletics for the 2025-26 season is sponsored by Marilyn Bohl.
By the time the Long Beach State men’s basketball team found any real rhythm on Saturday night against CSUN, it was too little, too late.
The Beach welcomed the CSUN into the LBS Financial Credit Union Pyramid in desperate need of a win and dug themselves another large hole, trailing by 17 points in the final 10 minutes of the game. Long Beach State turned the gears on from there behind Shaquil Bender’s 16 second-half points and even had a chance to tie it at the buzzer before ultimately suffering its ninth straight loss, 78–76.
“I’m very proud of my guys again for battling back and staying connected,” said LBSU coach Chris Acker. “We struggled to keep them out of the paint tonight, and we kept taking the ball out of the net way too many times in a row. It’s just a tough loss for us at home.”
The Beach followed up a 17-point deficit with under 10 minutes to play with an 11–1 run to bring the game within two possessions. Bender went on to score 11 straight of the Beach’s points, including a pair of three-pointers that cut the deficit to 78–76 with just over 20 seconds remaining.
From there, Bender missed a shot to tie the game before a pair of missed free throws on the other end gave the Beach one last chance with four seconds to play. Freshman Gavin Sykes ended up with the ball off the rebound, pushed it up the court and found a midrange look from the left side, but couldn’t get the equalizer to fall.
“We’re always going to battle to the end, especially at home,” said Bender, who finished the game with a season-high 27 points. “We’re always going to fight no matter what, so that was the mindset. I was telling the guys that we weren’t done and that we had a lot of time left, and everyone just bought in.”
Bender contributed to a hot start from beyond the arc for the Beach, as he, Cole Farrell and Gavin Sykes opened the night 4-for-5 from three-point range to give LBSU an early lead. All three guards were then subbed out at the media timeout five minutes into the game, and CSUN responded with a 17-5 run.
“That was actually the first time we had ever done that,” Acker said of those substitutions. “This group is an interesting group, and the difficult thing for me to do is find out who’s ready to go. Sometimes the only way to do that is to get other guys minutes earlier in the game so that we can see if they’re ready to go, and then I can figure out the rotation from there.”
LBSU trailed by eight heading into the break before opening the second half 1-for-7 from the field. The Beach then cut a 14-point deficit in half midway through the period before an 11-1 run from CSUN pushed the Matadors’ lead back to 17 with under 10 minutes to play.
The Beach were dominated in the paint, where they were outscored a lopsided 60–18. Senior guard Josiah Davis led the way inside for CSUN with 21 points without attempting a single three-pointer.
“It wasn’t very good,” Acker said of his defense in the paint. “And like I say, you’ve got to give credit to Northridge. They have a guard that drives with his head down, and if you help, he sprays it outside and his guys are always ready to shoot. You pick your poison, and he got in the paint, made baskets and then dropped the ball off.”
The Matadors’ dominance in the paint was part of what made LBSU forward Petar Majstorovic a non-factor, as the sophomore had just two points on two field-goal attempts while averaging over 15 points per game this season. Freshman Gavin Sykes similarly had a quieter night than we’ve come accustomed to, finishing with 13 points.
The loss puts LBSU at 4–12 in the conference, and they’ll likely miss the Big West Tournament barring a miraculous finish to the season. The Beach would need to win out while Cal Poly loses out in order to secure the tiebreaker over the Mustangs for eighth place. The top eight of 10 Big West teams make the tournament.
The Beach will close out the season at Cal Poly and Cal State Bakersfield before hosting UC Davis in their home finale. The regular season will conclude on the road at Hawai‘i before the Big West Tournament takes place at Lee’s Family Forum in Henderson, Nevada, from Mar. 11-14.
