LONG BEACH — It’s been mostly a two-man game for the Long Beach State men’s basketball team this season. Gavin Sykes (18.2 ppg) and Petar Majstorovic (14.9 ppg) came into the week as the only players on the team averaging double figures in scoring, but LBSU showed on Thursday night just how go od it can be when more players get involved in the offense. Five players scored in double digits to help Long Beach to an 88-73 victory over visiting UC Riverside in a Big West Conference game at the Pyramid. “The last two games we played, we had different guys step up,” Long Beach coach Chris Acker said. “The identity of this team is going to be a different guy, different night. I know what Petar is going to do, I know what Gavin’s going to do, or at least how teams are going to guard him, so at the end of the day for us to be successful, we’ve got to have other guys step up.” Majstorovic and Sykes still came close or surpassed their scoring averages, but it was the supporting cast that helped build a double-digit first-half lead that was never threatened in the second half. Majstorovic scored 13 of his 22 points in the second half and Sykes scored 11 of his 16 points after halftime. Leopold Levillain, a 6-foot-9 freshman from France who came in averaging 4.0 points and 3.8 rebounds, scored a season-high 11 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. Shaquil Bender scored 13 off the bench and Isaiah Lewis added 10 points in a reserve role for Long Beach (7-11 overall, 3-3 Big West), which has won five in a row at home. “It always feels good to play good at home, especially when people are coming to watch you and support you,” Majstorovic said. “The more people that are here supporting us and encouraging us, we always feel better. Nobody likes to play in an empty gym.” Marqui Worthy Jr. scored 14 of his 23 points in the first half for UCR (6-12, 1-5). Andrew Henderson and BJ Kolly added 14 points each. Long Beach came out of halftime with a 43-31 lead and Cole Farrell sank a wide-open 3-pointer in the opening minute to give LBSU its biggest lead of the game at 46-31. UCR never got back within single digits in the second half, pulling as close as 59-48 with 12:58 left, but an 8-0 run by Long Beach swelled the lead to 70-50 with 8:55 remaining. “One thing about this group, these guys are in the gym,” Acker said. “You come in here at night and they’re in the gym working. They were in here (Wednesday) night working. They really like being around each other, so we’re going to continue to get better.” Long Beach used a 12-0 run late in the first half to build a 40-26 lead and eventually take a 43-31 advantage into halftime. UCR took a 7-6 lead on two free throws by BJ Kolly and the lead changed hands nine more times before Henderson tied it at 17-17 on a drive to the basket. Sykes came in averaging 18.2 points, which ranked seventh in the country among freshmen, and his 20.6 scoring average in conference play was second among all Big West players, but he didn’t record get his first points until scoring with a baseline floater to break a 19-19 tie with 8:30 left in the opening half. Sykes was subbed out after picking up his second foul with 6:52 left in the half. Worthy’s basket kept it a two-point deficit with 5:34 remaining, but he went to the bench with his second foul with 4:52 to go and LBSU continued on the 12-0 run to go up by 14 points. Worthy sank a 35-foot 3-pointer to beat the shot clock with 23 seconds left and get the deficit back to single digits, but Dallas Washington hit a baseline 3-pointer at the buzzer to give Long Beach the 43-31 lead at the break. LBSU shot 60% from the floor in the first half and 58% for the game. Long Beach had just two turnovers with 12:09 left in the game before finishing with eight. “We’re going to continue to learn how to take care of the ball and protect leads,” Acker said. “We honestly worked on that all week, is protecting a lead and understanding the importance of valuing the basketball, so I’m just glad that it showed up tonight.” Related Articles No. 4 UCLA women rout Long Beach State to cap nonconference slate No. 4 UCLA women host Long Beach State striving for more ...read more read less