By snoadmin
In the words of the great Chicago Cubs shortstop Ernie Banks, “Let’s play two.”
The men’s and women’s basketball teams will both play at The Walter Pyramid Friday night. The women will begin the night hosting Montana State at 5 p.m. and following that game, the men will host Cal State Bakersfield at 7:35 p.m.
The women are coming off a tough weekend where they lost their first two games of the season, the first to USC 85-50 last Friday and the second to Santa Clara at home by a score of 76-67.
But LBSU head coach Mary Hegarty isn’t too concerned about the slow start to the season.
“I hate to lose, but we have 13 new players. I know it’s going to take time to get everyone playing on the same page and playing together,” Hegarty said. “I expected us to struggle early in the season, but I also expect us to get it going in January. As long as we get going in March, because that’s when it matters most.”
A bright spot for the team has been the play of Tyresha Calhoun, who is in her first year at LBSU after transferring from Riverside Community College.
Calhoun led the team in points in the first two games, scoring 14 points against USC and 16 against Santa Clara.
“Tyresha has quickness and the ability to make an impact defensively and offensively,” Hegarty said.
Also playing well in the first two games is Karina Figueroa, who picked up where she left off last season before getting hurt.
Against USC, Figueroa scored 12 points and against Santa Clara she scored 11.
“[Calhoun and Figueroa] could play at the same time,” said Hegarty on having both guards on the floor at the same time. “They both play well and they are both quick. We just have to continue to develop defensively.”
The women have been tough at home in recent history, compiling a 24-5 record since Nov. 24, 2004.
Montana State lost in its season opener to Montana Tech 65-57 on Sunday.
Montana State’s Rebecca Gimeno led the team in points and rebounds, scoring 19 points and grabbing 10 rebounds in the loss.
The men will also be home Sunday, when they play Oregon, their second Pac-10 team of the year.
The Ducks’ home opener will be against UC Santa Barbara on Friday before going to The Walter Pyramid Sunday.
For the men, they opened the season in Northern California this week, to participate in the College Basketball Classic Experience, which took place at Stanford.
The men lost to Air Force, a team that won 24 last year, by a score of 69-68 in the 49ers’ season opener.
Aaron Nixon scored a game-high 17 points, all of which came in the second half, and Sterling Byrd had a career-high 16 points in the loss.
The 49ers played San Jose State at Stanford Wednesday night, but the result of the game was not done by press time.
Friday’s match against CS Bakersfield will be the first home game of the year for the 49ers. Last year, LBSU was 9-4 at home.
The Union Weekly, the alternative newspaper on the LBSU campus, is trying to liven up the atmosphere at LBSU home basketball games.
They are calling on students to come to the games wearing black shirts and to support the basketball teams.
JJ Fiddler, the Union sports editor, wrote in his column this week, “I want to heckle. I want to jump up and down. I want to say proudly that”‘yeah I go to Long Beach, and yeah we have a great student section.'”
Don’t want until Monday to see how the basketball teams did. Go to Daily49er.com.
