Aboubacar Traore and his Long Beach State teammates didn’t play like they’re ready to say goodbye to Coach Dan Monson on Thursday night.
Traore had 12 points, 11 rebounds and 13 assists for the first triple-double in tournament history, and fourth-seeded LBSU kept its coach on the sideline for at least another game with an 86-67 victory over fifth-seeded UC Riverside in a Big West Tournament quarterfinal in Henderson, Nevada.
“It wouldn’t mean anything if we would have lost this game today,” Traore said of his triple-double. “I’m happy and also shout out to my coach for trusting me.”
Monson announced earlier in the week that he and Long Beach State were mutually parting ways after 17 seasons, during which he became the school’s all-time winningest coach (173-172).
LBSU returned all five starters this season and was picked to finish second in the conference standings, creating optimism about potentially reaching the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2012, but a five-game losing streak to end the regular season dropped Long Beach into fifth place.
LBSU (19-14) narrowly earned a bye into the quarterfinals and then wore down a UCR team that played the night before, earning a spot in the semifinals against top-seeded UC Irvine (24-8) on Friday at 6 p.m.
The Highlanders (16-18), meanwhile, believe they have an even brighter future with just two seniors departing the team.
“We’re just looking to keep building,” redshirt freshman guard Barrington Hargress said. “One thing that we always talk about this year is no limits and I think that’s going to continue into next year, and I think we’re going to keep on building. We’re all going to grow physically and mentally. We’re just going to come back as a better team and keep making runs.”
LBSU’s Marcus Tsohonis went to the bench with his fourth foul with 13:17 left and the teams followed with their 15th and 16th lead changes of the game, but then the game tilted sharply after Riverside forward Kaleb Smith registered a three-point play with 7:54 remaining to cut the margin to 63-61.
The Highlanders didn’t record a field goal the rest of the way, however.
Aboubacar Traore fed Lassina Traore for a layup that capped an 8-0 run and stretched the lead to 71-61.
Vladimer Salaridze twice cut the deficit to eight with free throws, but UCR never got any closer and Long Beach eventually closed the game on a 13-2 run, Traore sealing the triple-double with a free throw with 2:54 left.
Aboubacar Traore might have downplayed the achievement, but Lassina Traore knew how special it was to him.
“We’ve been talking about it forever now and he wanted to have a triple-double one game and tonight he had it,” said Lassina Traore (no relation). “I was super happy for him. He’s a really special player. He’s unselfish, and tries to find people. He’s not even playing for himself, he plays for his teammates first, so that’s really great and I love playing with him.”
Aboubacar Traore wasn’t the only player who played exceptionally.
Lassina Traore finished with 21 points on 8-for-10 shooting to go with 11 rebounds. AJ George also scored 21 off the bench and Tsohonis finished with 19 points, despite battling foul trouble.
Salaridze scored 17 points off the bench for his highest-scoring game in two seasons with the Highlanders. Hargress, Isaiah Moses and Smith led the starters with 12 points each.
“They just hit some big shots, kind of overpowered us there and I thought we ran out of gas a little bit,” UCR coach Mike Magpayo said. “We were getting pretty good looks, just couldn’t get it over, and that’s what they do, they’re big and strong and they wear you out. And, so I thought they wore us out a little bit down the stretch and it was a close game turned into a loss.”
