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Faust leads Long Beach State over UC Riverside in Big West

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ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) Nick Faust scored 21 points and grabbed 10 rebounds and third-seeded Long Beach State defeated No. 6 seed UC Riverside 82-74 in the quarterfinals of the Big West tournament on Thursday night.

Long Beach State (19-13) will play No. 2 seed UC Irvine and top-seeded Hawaii will play No. 4 seed UC Santa Barbara in Friday's semifinals.

Justin Bibbins made 10 of 11 free throws and scored 15 points, Travis Hammonds added 13 and Noah Blackwell 10 for the 49ers, who shot 47 percent and made 9 of 21 from the arc.

Jaylen Bland made five 3-pointers and scored 22 points with Secean Johnson adding 15 and Gentrey Thomas 13 for the Highlanders (14-19).

UCR was within two points after Steven Jones' 3-pointer with 2:39 to go but the 49ers scored the next nine points to lead 78-67 with 27 seconds remaining.

The 49ers have won 10 of their last 11 games.

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