Long Beach State rallies past UC San Diego 112-110 in 3 OTs

Updated Jan. 21, 2023 9:37 p.m. ET

Associated Press

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Marcus Tsohonis scored a school-record 46 points, Maddox Monson stole the ball and fed AJ George for a go-ahead layup with 2.7 seconds remaining in the third overtime and undermanned Long Beach State pulled out a 112-110 victory over UC San Diego on Saturday.

Tsohonis sank 15 of 38 shots with three 3-pointers and made 13 of 17 free throws for the Beach (10-10, 4-4 Big West Conference), who suited up just eight players because of injuries. He topped the 45-point efforts of Gabe Levin (2018) and Ed Ratliff (1971).

Monson, a walk-on and the son of Long Beach State coach Dan Monson, entered the game with 1:16 left in the third overtime after Aboubacar Traore picked up his fifth foul. George scored on a layup with seven seconds left to tie the game at 110. Monson stole the inbounds pass and picked up an assist on George's game-winner.

Aboubacar Traore totaled 13 points and 19 rebounds. Lassina Traore pitched in with 14 points and 19 rebounds before fouling out. George scored 17 on 6-of-8 shooting. Tone Hunter had 16 points, six boards and four assists.

Freshman Roddie Anderson III scored a career-high 28 points for the Tritons (7-13, 2-6). He made 8 of 20 shots and 12 of 14 free throws. Anderson scored 26 in a 71-64 win over Cal Poly last time out. Francis Nwaokorie scored a career-best 26 and grabbed 14 rebounds. Bryce Pope, the Big West's second-leading scorer at 18.8 per game, scored 21, but he made just 8 of 25 shots, including 1 of 6 from beyond the arc. Jake Kosakowski hit five 3-pointers and scored 15.

The game headed to overtime when Nwaokorie hit two foul shots with six seconds left to tie the game at 80. Tsohonis forced a second OT on a 3-pointer with 63 seconds remaining that tied it at 90. Pope hit two free throws with three seconds to go to knot the score at 99 and send it to a third OT.

___

More AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25