The Long Beach State Beach and the CSU-Northridge Matadors meet in a Big West conference tournament First Round matchup in college basketball action from the Michelob Ultra Arena on Tuesday afternoon.
The Long Beach State Beach come in as the #9-seed after finishing with a 4-8 conference record as part of their 5-11 mark overall this season. Michael Carter III led the way in scoring with 14.6 PPG while Isaiah Washington was close behind with 14.3 PPG along with a team-high 4.4 APG to lead the Beach in the assist department. Chance Hunter had 11.6 PPG with a team-high 6 RPG to lead Long Beach State on the glass while Joe Hampton added 10.8 PPG to make up the group of double-digit scorers for Long Beach State in the regular season. As a team, Long Beach State is averaging 72.3 PPG on 43.8% shooting from the field and 34.6% from three while allowing 79.5 PPG on 43.5% shooting from the field and 35.8% from three this season.
The CSU-Northridge Matadors will come in as the #8-seed after a 5-9 conference mark as part of their 9-12 record overall this season. TJ Starks leads the Matadors in scoring with 21.6 PPG along with 3.1 APG while Lance Coleman II has 13.9 PPG and Darius Brown II has chipped in 10.8 PPG with a team-high 5.3 APG to lead CSUN in assists while adding 4.8 RPG and 1.9 steals per game this season. Alex Merkviladze also has 10.2 PPG and a team-high 6.8 RPG as well to cap off the group of double-digit scorers for CSU-Northridge up to this point in the season. As a team, CSU-Northridge is averaging 72.5 PPG on 43.1% shooting from the field and 34.9% from three while allowing 77.3 PPG on 46.6% shooting from the field and 35.6% from three this season.
Long Beach State is 11-3 ATS in their last 14 games following a loss and 5-11 ATS in their last 16 games against a team with a losing record while the over is 5-2 in their last 7 neutral site games. CSU-Northridge is 5-1 ATS in their last 6 games overall and 5-0 ATS in their last 5 games following a loss while the under is 4-1 in their last 5 games against a team with a losing record. The underdog is 4-1 ATS in the last 5 meetings between these two teams.
It’s strange because normally we see Long Beach State favored in these spots because they schedule up in the regular season to prep for conference play and the tournament and this year it just hasn’t shaken out that way for the Beach. There’s also not much to go on for this year considering the two sides didn’t face off. With that said, I lean towards the Beach simply because they had the tougher opposition down the stretch which may serve them well in this game but realistically, this isn’t a game I’m going anywhere near.