Box score
PROVO, Utah (March 16, 2022) - It was truly a tale of two halves for Long Beach State (20-13) on the court in Provo, Utah. Up for nearly 22 minutes in the game, the Beach succumbed to the No. 2 seed in the National Invitation Tournament in host BYU, 93-72, on Wednesday night at the Marriott Center.
Long Beach State led by as many as eight points after Jordan Roberts swished a three with 6:01 to play in the first half to set the score at 33-25. The Beach defense forced BYU into 10 first-half turnovers leading to 15 points and The Big West’s regular-season champions got to the line at will in the period, going 17-of-19 from the charity stripe in the first 20 minutes.
BYU (23-10) turned it on in the second, quickly erasing the five-point halftime deficit to gain the 49-48 lead after Caleb Lohner connected on a three-pointer with 18:10 on the clock. The contest stayed tight for the next six minutes of game action as the score was tied at 57 apiece after Roberts split a trip to the line. However, the Long Beach State shooters went ice cold as BYU ran off 21 unanswered points, capped by a triple by Trevin Knell with 7:20 remaining. After building the sizeable advantage, the Cougars went on to claim the 93-72 win to advance to face Northern Iowa in the second round of the NIT.
Long Beach State had four double-digit scorers in the game, paced by 24 points on 9-of-17 shooting from Joel Murray. Roberts closed with 16, Big West Best Defensive Player Jadon Jones contributed 13 with a team-best seven rebounds, and Big West Player of the Year Colin Slater closed the night with 15 and a 6-for-6 effort from the line.
Lohner scored a career-high 20 points on 9-of-11 shooting for the Cougars in the win, leading a pack of five double-digit scorers. After holding All-WCC player Alex Barcello to three points (1-of-7) in the first half, he regrouped to add 14, including a 4-of-9 night from beyond the arc for BYU’s career three-point percentage leader. Gideon George (16), Fousseyni Traore (11) and Knell (10) also scored in double figures as the Cougars shot 60.6 percent from the field in the second half.