LB State overcomes UCR in OT
Deep ebbs and flows within a game or even a quarter have become a trademark of the Long Beach State women’s basketball team this season, and they’re as distinctive as the high and low tides down at the local marina.
Seventh-seeded Long Beach State survived its second straight turbulent matchup at the Big West Conference Tournament on Thursday afternoon, blowing a sizable lead for the second consecutive day early in the game against third-seeded UC Riverside before easing away in overtime for an 83-75 victory in Henderson, Nev.
LBSU (15-17) will meet second-seeded UC Irvine in the semifinals this afternoon.
“I’m really proud of their grit and grind, but this has been our team all year,” Long Beach first-year coach Amy Wright said. “If you followed us, this is how we play, this is kind of what we do.”
LBSU blew a 21-point lead in the opening round on Wednesday before pulling away at the end for a 90-75 win against sixthseeded UC Santa Barbara.
LBSU surged to a 15-point lead in the first quarter against UCR, but the Highlanders erased that margin by the early minutes of the second quarter.
The score remained close the rest of regulation, with both teams producing layups in the final 40 seconds of the fourth quarter to send the game into overtime.
That’s when LBSU pulled away for good, scoring the first eight points of the extra five-minute period and never letting UCR get closer than five the rest of the way.
“They came out in the first quarter and kind of punched us in the mouth so it was, ‘Can we fight back?’ and I think we did a great job of that,” UCR forward Jordan Webster said. “It just came down to the end. They hit tough shots, but I’m still very proud of this team. We were connected throughout the whole game. We fought back, it just wasn’t our time tonight.”
Patricia Chung had 20 points and eight rebounds, freshman Jada Crawshaw matched her season high with 17 points, Savannah Tucker scored 13 points and Sydney Woodley finished with nine points and 10 rebounds for Long Beach State, which also beat UCR in the quarterfinals last season.
“Coming in, we got a feel of the court and we got a lot of confidence from our first win,” Crawshaw said. “We came into the (UCR) game ready and prepared.
We knew what we wanted to do and we all had the same thing in mind. We all just wanted to win.”
Makayla Jackson, who came in averaging 8.9 points per game, scored a season-high 25, Webster had 20 points and a seasonhigh 15 rebounds and Matehya Bryant finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds for UCR (18-13), which had won six of its past seven.
Webster and Bryant combined for 31 of the 49 points for UCR in the loss to Long Beach in last season’s tournament, and they had accounted for two-thirds of their teams offense in the first two meetings against LBSU this season.
Long Beach State, meanwhile, did not return any players who scored in the quarterfinal win against UCR last season.
That wasn’t evident in the rematch.
“They’re just together as a team,” Wright said. “Everybody is a leader, everybody has a say. They trust each other and I think that’s really the key when you go into a competitive battle like this. Xs and Os matter, but at the end of the day it is your team believing in each other.”