CSUB men face daunting defensive assignment against Long Beach State Thursday

Mar. 9—HENDERSON, Nev. — After the Cal State Bakersfield men's basketball team shut down CSUN's Atin Wright and Elijah Hardy on Tuesday, the blueprint is in place for the Roadrunners to stop high-scoring guards.

It's just going to be a big step up from Tuesday, taking on one All-Big West honorable mention in Wright, to Thursday against Long Beach State, with the conference's player of the year Colin Slater and another First-Team All-Big West guard in Joel Murray on the other side.

And the Beach has a third option: double-digit scorer and Big West Best Defensive Player Jadon Jones. Not to mention Aboubacar Traore, the conference leader in rebounds per game this season, who had a 14-point, 10-rebound double-double against CSUB on Feb. 3.

It's not difficult to see how the Beach earned the No. 1 seed, with an 11-game winning streak getting the team into gear after a tough nonconference schedule.

But beating CSUN handily with a strong second half Tuesday has lifted the Roadrunners' spirits.

"If we follow the game plan, and we execute and we play with confidence," CSUB coach Rod Barnes said after the win, "I feel like we can beat anyone here."

Murray is more of a threat to attack the paint who is 124-for-144 on free throws this season, Slater an outside scorer. It wouldn't be a surprise to see freshman Ivan Reynolds shoulder the burden of curtailing Slater in particular, after how successfully, in his first career start, he carried out Barnes' instructions against Wright and CSUN.

"I said, 'Listen, for us to win this game, you got to shut this guy down,'" Barnes said. "'I don't care if you shoot the ball, I don't care if you make a pass. We recruited you to do this.'"

The Beach, for its part, racks up blocks and steals, but even with Jones' contributions, its own defense has been middling all year in terms of points per game. That's why, simply needing to give its offense a chance, the CSUB defense will be in the spotlight.

"It's what we're known for here in Bakersfield," forward Justin McCall said. "You know we haven't been showing that throughout the season."

Against the Beach in February, the Roadrunners led 58-57 with 6:27 remaining before getting outscored 9-0 in the following four minutes. A 3-pointer by Kaleb Higgins, in one of his top performances of the year, cut the deficit back to five, but Higgins and McCall both missed chances to narrow the margin further inside of two minutes.

Higgins' 11-point second half against CSUN gives the Roadrunners hope he'll elevate his game to a new level in the tournament.

"I've been struggling all year," he said. "I wanted to change, I wanted to be different in the playoffs."

The teams had just that one meeting, after a prior Jan. 1 game was canceled due to COVID-19 just over an hour before tipoff, with the Beach players already warming up on the Icardo Center court.

One footnote about Thursday's quarterfinal: it gives McCall and Long Beach State's Jordan Roberts, seniors, longtime friends and former valley champions at Ridgeview High School, a final chance to play each other after their first official meeting in February. That wasn't a memorable game for either, with Roberts, a starting forward for the Beach, posting four points and McCall eight. But both have upped their scoring output of late, with Roberts putting up 20 on UC Riverside on Saturday.

It's yet another offensive option for the Beach, but at least it's a familiar one for CSUB.

Reporter Henry Greenstein can be reached at 661-395-7374. Follow him on Twitter: @HenryGreenstein.