By snoadmin
ANAHEIM – The Long Beach State women’s basketball team committed 22 turnovers in a disastrous finish to its season, a 69-51 first-round loss to Cal State Fullerton in the Big West Conference Tournament Wednesday at the Anaheim Convention Center.
LBSU (9-20) seemingly had the momentum over the Titans (10-18) entering the contest. The 49ers demolished the Titans 80-62 in their last meeting on Feb. 22 at the Walter Pyramid, and were dominant on the boards in both games (84-61 advantage). However, that all changed in the rubber match, as the Titans were the aggressors in the paint and with rebounds.
CSF out-rebounded the 49ers 33-31, and 11 came from CSF forward Toni Thomas, the Big West’s scoring champion. Thomas lived up to her title in Wednesday’s game with 18 points, but the big difference was the play of Titan guard Jasmine Scott, who scored a game-high 22 points on 10-for-15 shooting and added four assists.
Head coach Mary Hegarty said CSF’s Scott was the difference-maker in the team’s loss. The 49ers’ inability to contain Thomas in the paint, however, was not surprising to the frustrated head coach.
“Toni’s a great player,” Hegarty said. “She’s deadly. You really have to run two or three people at her.”
The 49ers, 3-13 during the regular season when committing 20 or more turnovers, could not master any type of run during the game because of constant turnovers – seven of them from senior point guard Tyresha Calhoun – as CSF outscored them 30-10 off turnovers.
Hegarty believed turnovers and CSF’s deadly shooting combined to keep LBSU from turning back the large deficit.
“Regardless of our zone defenses and press defenses, they got open and made shots,” Hegarty said. “We had our chances [in the second half] to cut into the lead, but we kept turning the ball over. Sophomore forward Brett Timmons had a solid game and led the 49ers with a career-high 12 points and added six rebounds. Junior guard and leading scorer Karina Figueroa, however, struggled to find her touch and finished with 10 points on 4-for-11 shooting. No other LBSU player reached double figures.
The Titans changed their game plan a bit to thwart LBSU’s zone defense. CSF began attacking from the baseline and created a lot of space for easy jumpers, as they took a 38-29 lead into the half while shooting 51 percent. While CSF shot 47 percent for the game and connected on several perimeter shots, the 49ers were losing touch with their own shots. LBSU shot 46 percent to end the half, but would get no better in the second half.
The 49ers shot an abysmal 32 percent in the second half and trailed by double-digits for most of the half. LBSU would get no closer than nine and led only once in the game – a 15-13 lead nine minutes into the game.
LBSU’s spectacular 4-1 run to end conference play was the result of balanced scoring, efficient defense and fewer turnovers. Before that, the team’s inconsistencies were the result of problems with turnovers, and it showed in a 5-18 conference record.
After the loss, Hegarty expressed more than disappointment with the team’s performance.
“Just to say I was disappointed in our effort is a major understatement,” Hegarty said. “I felt like we were prepared. Fullerton came out very aggressively and took advantage of open shots.”
Both Hegary and Timmons agreed on the team’s apparent lack of intensity during the game.
“They came out with intensity and we just didn’t match it,” Timmons said.
The 49ers will enter the offseason wondering what had happened to their momentum and questions to answer after the demoralizing loss.
“We could never put anything together,” Hegarty said. “We just couldn’t get any stops. This was never a scenario I envisioned.”
The 49ers entered the tournament with wins in four of their last five games. CSF shot 38 percent against them during conference play. LBSU, meanwhile, averaged a near-50 percent clip against the Titans in two conference games.
But LBSU also finished fourth in the conference in turnovers with 20, and the nightmare came back at the wrong time.
