Long Beach wins the Big West

Aaron Nixon scored 22 points, Kevin Houston added 20 and Long Beach State won its first Big West Conference title in 11 years Thursday night with an 85-80 victory over UC Irvine at Long Beach.

Sterling Byrd and Kejuan Johnson scored 12 points apiece for the 49ers, 21-7 overall, 11-2 in conference, who will be the top-seeded team in the conference tournament that begins Wednesday in Anaheim.

Mark Kelley scored a career-high 24 points and had nine rebounds for Irvine (13-17, 6-8). Nic Campbell added 15 points for the Anteaters, who qualified for the conference tournament but will not know who their opponent will be until regular-season play ends Saturday.

The Anteaters scored on their first 10 possessions of the second half to build a 54-44 lead with 14:45 remaining. Nixon then led Long Beach State’s comeback by scoring 14 points over the next eight minutes.

Johnson’s three-point basket gave the 49ers a 69-67 lead with 5:55 left. Long Beach made seven of eight free throws in the closing minutes to secure the victory.

Cal Poly 86, Cal State Northridge 70 -- Tyler McGinn scored 19 points to lead the Mustangs over the Matadors at San Luis Obispo.

It was the sixth consecutive victory for Cal Poly (17-10, 8-5), guaranteeing it a bye in the first round of next week’s Big West tournament.

Calvin Chitwood scored 22 points for Northridge (14-15, 5-8).

UC Riverside 80, UC Davis 76 -- Larry Cunningham had 26 points to help the Highlanders hold off the Aggies in a nonconference game at Davis.

Henrik Thomsen added 14 points and Justin Bell scored 13 for Riverside (7-22).

Thomas Juillerat had 16 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists for Davis (4-23), which has an 11-game losing streak. Ari Wamerdam had a career-high 23 points for the Aggies.

After Davis tied the score, 71-71, with 3:45 to play, a 7-1 run gave Riverside a 78-72 lead with 59 seconds left. Juillerat’s basket cut the Highlanders’ lead to three, but the Aggies could not capitalize on four of six missed free throws by Riverside in the final 25 seconds.

UC Santa Barbara 64, Pacific 49 -- Alex Harris scored 22 points at Santa Barbara and the Gauchos clinched a first-round bye in the Big West tournament.

James Powell, who made all four of his three-point shots, finished with 14 points as Santa Barbara (17-10, 8-5) made 10 of 19 shots from behind the arc and shot 45.1% overall.

Anthony Esparza scored 16 points and Wolfgang Raffety added 11 for Pacific (11-17, 5-8).