Too big for the Beach: BYU posts put on show to win NIT opener

PROVO — Long Beach State had plenty of advantages against BYU in the two teams' NIT opener.

The Big West regular-season champions were fast, controlled, and had three more-than-capable scorers in Joel Murray, Collin Slater and Jordan Roberts.

BYU had just one: size. And Caleb Lohner did everything he could to make good use of it.

Lohner poured in a career-high 20 points, four rebounds and two assists, and second-seeded BYU held Long Beach State scoreless from the field for over five minutes in the second half to pull away for a 93-72 win Wednesday night in front of just over 5,000 fans that packed the lower bowl of the Marriott Center.

Gideon George added 16 points, two rebounds and two assists for the Cougars, who got 11 points and seven rebounds from Fousseyni Traore.

"It's our first game in the NIT — not exactly where we wanted to be," Lohner said. "But I think everyone on the roster now is kind of enjoying it. This is where we are; this is the ride we're going to take.

"Tonight was a showcase of all of us playing together. It took us a while to turn it on and start playing like us. But we ended the game on a high note, and we're moving on to the next round."

Not to be forgotten, Alex Barcello added 14 points, five rebounds and five assists for BYU, including a 3-point bomb with 5:20 to go that put the Cougars up 83-62 as the home team shot 55% with 28 assists on 36 made baskets — including seven from Te'Jon Lucas, two off his BYU career high.

The Cougars (23-10) had hopes of something greater than the NIT at the start of the year — even moreso when they climbed as high as No. 12 in the nation and were a top-30 team in the NET with just over a month left in the regular season, before a four-game slide that was the beginning of the end of their NCAA Tournament hopes.

They held out a shred — even a modicum — of hope that some miracle might happen and let them into the Big Dance on Sunday, at least a chance to be one of those First Four teams playing in Dayton, Ohio, and hearing from fans and family, asking "what channel is TruTV?" by Wednesday night. But that didn't happen; the season is what you make of it, and BYU made it into an NIT-bound season.

Now is their chance to respond.

"I think we're all working on our emotions right now," BYU coach Mark Pope said. "Teams in the NIT that were in that tier that just wanted to make it — it's a big deal to make the NIT; there are 270 teams that don't. For those teams scratching and clawing to get in, this is an incredible opportunity. But for others who had hopes of being in the NCAA Tournament, it can be hard to collect your emotions.

"The one thing we have with this team, whether we play well or don't play well, this team fights. It's just in their DNA; they fight for each other. These guys proved it again."

Long Beach senior Collin Slater had a game-high 13 points in the first half as his team (20-13) rolled up a 46-41 lead at the break, despite missing top freshman big Aboubacar Traore.

But Slater picked up a fourth foul early in the second half, and BYU took advantage. The Cougars held the Beach scoreless for nearly four minutes as Lohner capped an 8-0 run with a drop-step jumper from close range to go up 57-52 with 13:44 remaining.

"I'll tell you this: Our Traore is better than their Traore. I'll take my guy all day," George told BYU Radio after the game. "It was really simple: feed the ball into the post, and take advantage of the mismatch. Caleb, Atiki, Fouss, even myself."

George paced an 18-0 run moments later, including a 3-pointer with 10:50 to go as BYU extended its lead to 18, 75-57, midway through the second half. That included a key 3-pointer by Barcello — his third of the night — but more importantly, a scoring drought that stretched over four minutes for the Beach.

Make it 21-straight as Trevin Knell knocked down 3 of his 10 points with 7:20 on the clock — the longest scoring run of the season in BYU's favor. The Cougars, who shot 50% or better in the first half, found a rhythm on defense in the second half and used it to further spur an offensive rhythm to carry them to the finish line.

In the words of network television legend Ron Burgundy: That escalated quickly.

"We started getting stops in the second half; those stops led to transition buckets," Lohner said, "and I think it just gave us some juice on the offensive end."

Slater finished with 15 points before fouling out, and Murray added 24 points for Long Beach State. Jadon Jones supplied 13 points and seven rebounds, and Roberts had 16 points and six boards.

Barcello missed his first three shots from the field, and Long Beach seniors Slater and Roberts combined for 11 of the Beach's first 17 points en route to a 17-14 lead seven minutes into the game.

Neither side shot particularly well early — Long Beach whiffed on its first six 3-point attempts before Jones stretched the visitors' lead to 24-18 with 9:22 left in the half. But BYU controlled the paint, with loaner and Traore powered through to a 28-14 advantage inside in the first half to keep the game close.

Long Beach forced 10 turnovers and turned them into 15 points to en route to a 46-41 halftime lead, including 13 points from Slater in a first half when the Beach shot just 32%.

"We weren't our very best in the first half," Pope said. "But we believed if we kept knocking on the door, the game would come to us. And it did; it was awesome."

The Cougars' win wraps up the first round of the NIT, where 12 of the 16 seeded teams advanced — including SMU, the No. 1 seed on BYU's side of the bracket.

The four seeded upsets include third-seeded Mississippi State and Saint Louis, and fourth-seeded Colorado and Utah State.

BYU advanced to face Northern Iowa in the NIT second round. Tipoff Saturday is scheduled for 7 p.m. MT at the Marriott Center. With two more wins, the Cougars will be off to Madison Square Garden and New York City for the NIT semifinals.

With the disappointment of Selection Sunday behind them, the Cougars rose to the challenge of an upstart conference champion and fended off one NIT upset. Four more, and Pope offered to "personally pay for a 200-foot NIT champions banner" and hang it from the Marriott Center rafters — "at least for the summer," he joked with BYU play-by-play broadcaster Greg Wrubell. It's not the position BYU wanted to be in this year. But now that they're there, they might as well make the most of it.

"At one point, we thought we were done with our season," George said. "But this is the NIT; no matter what, we going to come out here and play. We love being able to come out here and play in front of these fans, too."

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