Long Beach State frustrated after narrow loss at Stanford

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STANFORD — For the fourth time this season, Long Beach State had a Pac-12 opponent on the ropes late, but the end result was more frustration for the 49ers.

Trailing at Stanford on Saturday night, Long Beach had a shot to tie the score with less than 10 seconds left, but Jordan Griffin’s 3-point attempt fell well short. The 49ers bench immediately yelled for a foul call, but there was no whistle on the play, and Coach Dan Monson was eventually ejected for arguing the call in a 93-86 loss to the Cardinal at Maples Pavilion.

Bryan Alberts scored a season-high 22 points and six rebounds on 6-for-13 shooting from 3-point range to lead the 49ers (5-10), who dropped to 0-5 against Pac-12 teams this season. Deishuan Booker added 20 points and a season-high eight assists and Temidayo Yussef had 13 and a team-high eight rebounds.

“That’s our fifth Pac-12 game and in four of them we were in a one-possession game and lost all four,” Monson said. “You play these games to win, and I think we’re good enough, but we’re not consistent enough. That’s what we take away from this one.”

Stanford led 82-70 with less than three minutes left, before an Alberts 3-pointer kicked off a 14-4 Long Beach run. That stretch included a pair of buckets from Yussuf, another triple from Alberts, and a 3-pointer from Griffin that cut the margin to 86-84 with 56 seconds left. The Beach got the look to tie in the closing seconds, but the no-call on his field goal try was the decisive moment that ended the comeback attempt.

KZ Okpala had six points of his 20 points in the final 34 seconds as Stanford closed on a 7-2 run, and the no-call on Griffin’s late miss essentially ended the 49ers’ comeback attempt. Stanford was just 7 for 21 from the free-throw line to help LBSU stay within striking range.

Josh Sharma, Stanford’s only senior recorded his first double-double with career highs of 23 points and 18 rebounds. Sharma, whose previous career bests were 15 points and nine rebounds, was 10-of-15 shooting.

“I was mad at him,” Stanford coach Jerod Haase said. “I wanted him to play with more consistency and be a leader. He responded when I’ve been all over him.”

Daejon Davis had 17 points, on 8-of-9 shooting, and five assists for Stanford (7-5), which has won five of seven. Jaiden Delaire added 10 points for the Cardinal.

Alberts hit a 3-pointer and Yussef made a jumper Long Beach a 45-43 edge but Stanford responded with a 13-1 run to make it 56-46 with just less than 14 minutes remaining and the Cardinal led the rest of the way.

Long Beach State, which beat Stanford for the first time last season, dropped to 0-8 on the road.

Davis left the game with an apparent left leg injury with 6:40 remaining. Haase said he doesn’t know the extent of the injury.

“Daejon is a huge part of this team, but there are guys willing to step into his role,” Sharma said. “We got together and got past that.”

UP NEXT

Long Beach State hosts Bethesda in a nonconference game next Saturday at 7 p.m.

Stanford travels to UCLA to open Pac-12 play on Thursday.

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