SAN DIEGO – San Diego Men's Basketball fell by a final score of 70-76 at home to Long Beach State Tuesday after an efficient shooting night by The Beach.
 
Four Toreros scored in double-figures in the contest, junior guard Kjay Bradley Jr. leading the contingent with 19 points, also tacking on six assists.
 
Six Toreros combined to convert on a season-high 11 3-pointers, as senior forward Bendji Pierre continued his hot run of form from behind the arc and guided the effort with three and finishing with 13 points.
 
Senior center Steven Jamerson II grabbed a game-best 10 rebounds and was two points shy of a double-double. USD also had a positive assist-to-turnover ratio for the third time this season and five different Toreros notched blocks, seven combining for eight total steals in the contest.
 
The guests out-shot San Diego 58%-43% from the field, a 73.7% clip in the second half alone. In the first 15 minutes of the second half, The Beach had missed just two field goals.
 
How it Happened

• For the fourth consecutive game, the lineup of Bradley Jr., Duckett, Jamerson II, Dahlke and Trouet start the game
• Strong Torero defense, a pair of threes and six free throws saw them take the game's first lead, extending to a 15-9 advantage at the under-12 media timeout
• Three more threes and an eventual 6-0 run led to a 20-14 lead with 7:08 remaining in the first period
• Long Beach State answered with a 6-0 run of their own, evening the score and eventually taking their first lead of the game with 4:41 to go
• At the half, the USD trailed 30-33, shooting 50% from beyond the arc while making just three two-point field goals (32%), however going 9-10 at the charity stripe
• Sophomore forward Trouet scored seven of San Diego's first nine points out of the break, but LBSU continued its efficient shooting
• In the first 12 minutes of the second half, Long Beach State was shot 8-10 from FG, 2-2 3PT and 5-5 FT
• The Toreros were able to keep the game within single digits however with more threes from Pierre and freshman guard Tony Duckett
• A Pierre chase-down block and another 3-pointer on the other end of the floor fronted an 8-0 USD run that saw the hosts come within three with 2:55 remaining
• The Beach put the game beyond reach with another run, the score reading 76-70 when the clocks struck zeros

 
Up Next
The Toreros, now 3-7, head to Fresno, Calif. in search of their first road win of the season, taking on Fresno State on Saturday, Dec. 14 at 4 p.m.. The game will be broadcast on the Mountain West Network, and over the radio airwaves by voice of the Toreros Jack Cronin on USDToreros.com/watch while inside coverage can also be found on the @USDMBB social channels.
 
Postgame Quotes
 
USD Head Coach Steve Lavin
 
Opening statement…
Long Beach State blistered the nets tonight. Offensively, they performed at an elite level. We knew coming in they had some confidence. They got off to a 2-0 start in conference play. They had their struggles in November, but you can see it's a team that's clicking and playing with great confidence right now, and so we have to go back to work on the defensive side of the ball. There were some encouraging elements in terms of only having 10 turnovers, shooting the ball from the 3-point line; which has hurt us at times this year, in terms of the anemic numbers offensively from behind the arc, but this was about defense. We weren't able to get enough stops, and we had we tried man, we tried zone, we tried some full-court press, a number of different schemes on their pick and rolls, but we just didn't get the job done. We couldn't get enough stops, and that affects our offense. We don't get stops or shutouts, then it really limits our run-outs in transition. We did close the gap, made it a one-possession game late, through some opportunistic full court pressing and knocking down some shots and getting some high percentage looks, but it was too little, too late. We didn't turn it on early enough, and that's a challenge for us – sustaining our level of play. We've played well in spurts this year, but we have a real difficulty in sustaining it. So, back to the drawing board.
 
On the team's performance from three…
Yeah, I think Bendji has given us a shot in the arm in terms of his ability to stretch defenses and knock down shots, and he gets his reps in on a daily basis. So, it's good to see him rewarded for the hard work. But again, while we're encouraged by knocking down some shots for us to be competitive, we're going to have to get better defensively. And give credit to Long Beach State. They were tied together. They made the extra pass. They got downhill on us. They were very aggressive. That got them to the foul line, and they won that game as well, because there's games within games, whether it's points in the paint or it's the free throw battle in terms of getting yourself to the charity stripe and getting to the bonus as soon as they did in both halves. And that's because of their aggression in terms of attacking the paint. And so that's an aspect we're going to have to continue to get better at. I thought late we were more aggressive in terms of pushing the ball in transition and getting downhill for some opportunistic threes, as I mentioned earlier, but pleased that Bendji is making some shots for us. We've got to have more balance in our scoring, and again, puts a lot of pressure on your offense if you're not getting the stops or shutouts, which can lead to some run-outs and some transition basketball if you're always taking the ball out of the net after your opponent scores, it's really difficult to get the numbers in transition that we want that are favorable. 
 
On takeaways looking forward to Saturday's matchup at Fresno State…
Well, I think it's a season where we knew coming in that we had a lot of new pieces, 15 underclassmen, the youngest team in school history for the second consecutive year, and seven new pieces as well. And so, we've been disjointed, and the hope is to get to a place where we have a more level or consistent performance, and that starts in practice. We've got to watch some game film, do the drill work, and get ready for Fresno State. I think we'll look at shaking up the lineup. We'll look at doing some tweaks to our defensive schemes. And when you take a loss like this, it forces you to kind of use some ingenuity and resourcefulness and put your heads together with our staff, and kind of explore ways that we can improve, to elevate our defensive effort and then obviously we've got to continue to build on our offensive rhythm and cohesiveness on both ends of the floor. We really have to continue to improve drastically if we hope to be competitive in conference play.