Long Beach State (14-12, 9-4 Big West) escaped with a 75-74 win over UC Irvine tonight at the Pyramid, setting itself up for a match-up for first place against the Matadors (13-12, 9-4) on Saturday at the Matadome.

Here’s a quote from CSUN Athletics Director Rick Mazzuto, aka Head Coach Bobby Braswell’s boss. If you’re a “Free Deon Tresvant” supporter, it’s likely this isn’t going to cheer you up. Said Mazzuto: “Deon’s status with the basketball team hasn’t changed. He remains a student in good standing with the university, but we will continue to withhold him from competition until his court case is resolved. We had hoped the situation would have been resolved today, but it didn’t.” Tresvant,… Read more

CSUN leading scorer Deon Tresvant and Jeffrey Braswell, Head Coach Bobby Braswell’s son, entered a not-guilty plea today at San Fernando Superior Court. A preliminary hearing was set for March 16. Tresvant and Braswell were both accused of theft at a Best Buy on New Year’s Day. Actor Phannuel Gbewonyo, allegedly also involved in the thefts, pleaded the same way. The three men were all represented by attorneys and limited themselves to acknowledging their pleas while their defenders did all… Read more

Final score 62-57. Full recap to come.

CSUN’s tied 48-48 with 4:31 to go. Tremaine Townsend has four fouls. So does Jaime Serna of UCSB.

CSUN’s cut the lead to 44-39 with 10:50 to go and the Red Rally is back on its feet (not that they’ve sat down for too long at any point tonight). And Vincent Cordell just cut it to 44-41. This is the closest CSUN’s been for a …. Cordell just made a three. Tie game, 44-44.

His head is down. The point guard can’t do much right as CSUN trails 36-29. Hill has six turnovers and just fouled a Gaucho purposely out of frustration. And the first-half hero, Rodrigue Mels, just fouled Will Brew while he was shooting a 3-pointer. Things are going down-Hill here.

They played a terrible first half, shooting 30 percent from the floor and turning the ball over 14 times, but are down only 29-23 at halftime. The Gauchos cooled off their shooting a bit, but still ended up making 47 percent of their attempts. They also ate buttered popcorn before the game, turning the ball over 15 times. Rodrigue Mels leads all scorers with nine points.

Rodrigue Mels just had a reverse dunk that had the entire Matadome and the CSUN bench on its feet. A moment after, he missed a three-pointer that for sure would have brought the house down. CSUN’s trailing 23-16 with 4:15 to go. The Matadors have another look in their eyes. Let’s see if they can turn this into a game at least. And-one for UCSB …