Senior point guard Tyresha Calhoun began her career at Long Beach State as a pass-first guard. Most of those passes were to star junior guard Karina Figueroa, who went on to make the all-Big West second team with a team-leading 16.4 scoring average last season.
Figueroa was playing her usual game (10.4 points per game) again this season until a foot injury in early December forced her to sit out for eight games. The women’s basketball team, as a whole, also felt the pain during the eight-game stretch, going 2-6. One player, however, was getting better during the past month, and the pass-first mentality started to slip away from the team’s only senior.
Calhoun averaged 10.4 points per game on 20-42 shooting before Figueroa was out. During Figueroa’s absence, Calhoun averaged nine points, but shot better from the field (56 percent). Calhoun set a career-high of 17 points in just her second game without Figueroa, a 75-52 loss to Nebraska at The Walter Pyramid. Calhoun called Figueroa’s injury “a change for the worse,” but saw the time as an opportunity for her and others to step in as primary scorers.
“A lot of people weren’t used to being the lead scorer,” Calhoun said. “Someone else had to step up, and a lot of people look to me for the leadership because coach [Hegarty] is not on the floor all the time.”
The lone senior certainly did make her presence felt, and led an offensive outburst with sophomore forward Ally Wade, who scored 24 points, in a win over Washington State. Calhoun’s 4-5 shooting for 12 points was as crucial as her team-high five assists, and the 49ers found themselves feeling a little calm in the absence of their most coveted player.
Calhoun has been the team’s leader in assists (46) and steals (24) this season. She did just the same in 2007, but probably never would have imagined being the team’s leading scorer at some point in time this season. In fact, she leads the team in total points this season (136). Calhoun reminisced about her days at Riverside Community College where the opportunities to score were very little.
“I didn’t shoot much over there,” Calhoun said. “Everybody on my junior college team was running. We run here, but we don’t force things like over there. I went from a fast-pace offense at RCC to a set offense at LBSU.”
The transition, Calhoun felt, changed her game a bit on the court. But as the team began to stumble with losses, Calhoun became the shoot-first guard she believed she could have been at RCC, and her family, which she calls “The Pack,” has been at all of her home games to witness it.
This season has been disappointing for the 49ers, but Calhoun has had a career year. While many were waiting for Figueroa’s return, Calhoun was returning to form. She was out via injury for the first four games of the season, and the sense of urgency to compete well was there, even when things were not turning out well for the team, which is currently 3-13 on the year.
“I’d rate this season a six [out of 10],” Calhoun said. “There were days where we were bad, but we didn’t know what we were doing.”
For 14 games this season, Calhoun has known what she’s been doing, but didn’t realize how much more of a threat she has become on the court. With a quiet, yet happy demeanor, Calhoun has passed on being pass-first this year, and is going out with quite a blast.
