Lassina Traore had a career-high 25 points, Marcus Tsohonis scored 25 and hit two free throws with 3.6 seconds left to help No. 4 seed Long Beach State beat second-seeded UC Davis 74-70 on Saturday night in the championship game of the Big West conference tournament, sending coach Dan Monson to the NCAA tournament in his final season with the Beach.
It’s been an unlikely run for the Beach after the school announced Monday that they would be parting ways with Monson after 17 seasons.
Lassina Traore made 12 of 17 shots and his only free throw for Long Beach State (21-14), which entered the tournament on a five-game losing streak before defeating No. 5 seed UC Riverside and top-seeded UC Irvine to to reach the final. . He added nine rebounds, five of which came on the offensive end. Tsohonis hit 8 of 21 shots with four 3-pointers and 5 of 6 foul shots.
Aboubacar Traore, no relation to Lussina, finished with seven points, thirteen rebounds and six assists for the Beach. AJ George added nine points and seven rebounds off the bench.
Ty Johnson led the Aggies (20-13) with 30 points, six rebounds and four assists. Elijah Pepper hit four three-pointers and scored 21, adding nine rebounds and three assists.
Johnson had 11 points and Pepper scored 10, leading UC Davis to a 32-27 lead at halftime. Tsohonis had 15 points at the break to keep Long Beach State close.
Lussina Traore scored 19 in the second half. His rebound basket put Long Beach State even at 54-all and George followed with a three-pointer to give the Beach a 57-54 lead with 7:29 to go. It was their first lead since 15-12.
UC Davis twice closed to within a point and trailed 72-70 on an Ade Adebayo layup with 4 seconds left, but Tsohonis held on at the line to close out the win.
Monson, who started Gonzaga’s unprecedented success when he led the Bulldogs to the Elite Eight in 1999 before leaving to take over a embattled Minnesota Golden Gophers program and handing Gonzaga’s reins to Mark Few, has taken over for the first time Beach in the Big Dance. time since he took them in 2012, when LBSU was known as the 49ers.
Monson leaves as the school’s winningest coach. He currently has 275 wins against 272 losses.