Beach Travel to UCI for Only Game This Week
49ers Return Next Week for Five of Seven
January 20, 2004
PDF Version of the Release at UC Irvine (2-12, 1-5), SATURDAY AT 7 P.M.
Travel partner UC Irvine is coming off a 69-57 win at CS Fullerton on Saturday, which snapped a season-long six match losing streak... UCI opened the year losing six in a row... Christina Callaway leads the club with 12.4 points and 8.4 rebounds per game... Kristen Green is averaging 11.4 points and 5.6 rebounds per game... UCI is shooting just 35% from the field and 71% from the charity stripe... the Anteaters are averaging 56.0 points per game.
BEACH END ROADTRIP ON SATURDAY
Long Beach State (6-9, 2-4 Big West), winners of two in a row, will end their three-game roadtrip this Saturday when they travel down Interstate-405 for a game at 7 p.m. at the Bren Center at travel-partner UC Irvine (2-12, 1-5 Big West). The 49ers then return home for five of the next seven Big West contests. All LBSU games can be heard live at www.longbeachstate.com.
THE HEGARTY FILE
Mary Hegarty, one of the 15 greatest players in UCLA women's basketball history (along with current assistant and Hall of Famer Denise Curry), begins her first season at the helm of the 49ers. Hegarty previously coached 10 seasons at Chapman University in Orange County, going 160-92 (.635), averaging 16 wins a season after the team won just two games the year prior to her arrival. Over the past three seasons, Chapman, a non-scholarship, unaffiliated Division-III program reached the last three straight NCAA Tournaments with at-large berths and went 57-24 (.704), including a Sweet 16 appearance in 2001-02. She appeared in four NCAAs in her 10 seasons.
LBSU 56, UC Riverside 48: Jayme Connors led the 49ers with 16 points and six rebounds on 7-of-11 shooting en route to a 56-48 win over host UC Riverside for the team's second win in a row. Connors also keyed the 49ers run over the final two minutes with six straight points, two days after scoring a season-high 18 points at CS Fullerton. Petra Gläser and Crystal McCutcheon added 13 points a piece as LBSU outrebounded the Highlanders 39-to-31. The 49ers were able to sustain a 12-3 run midway through the second half by UCR and hold on for the win.
LBSU 77, CS Fullerton 65: Long Beach State and Head Coach Mary Hegarty picked up their first conference wins of the season, defeating host CS Fullerton 77-65 behind Jayme Connors' 18 points and 12 rebounds. She led five 49ers in double figures as Crystal McCutcheon added 17 points. Long Beach State outrebounded CS Fullerton 51 to 28 in their best rebounding performance of the season as McCutcheon and Petra Gläser each had nine rebounds.
CONNORS HAS BIG WEEK
Forward Jayme Connors (Las Vegas, NV) is coming off back-to-back double digit performances for the first time this season after scoring a season-high 18 points against CS Fullerton and adding 16 points in the win at UC Riverside. Connors' third double-double of the season came in Fullerton when she also grabbed 12 rebounds, the first time in five games the sophomore had doubled up the opposition. Connors is averaging 9.8 points and a team-best 7.5 rebounds per game, while shooting 47% from the field.
GETTING IT DONE FROM THE LINE
The 49ers shot 76% from the free throw line last week after shooting just 54% over their first four Big West contests. More importantly the team got to the line 25 times in each contest.
REBOUNDING IN A BIG WAY
Maybe the most painful achilles heal for the 49ers this season is their rebounding. After averaging about 34 rebounds per contest over their first 13 games, the 49ers outrebounded CS Fullerton 51 to 28 and grabbed 39 rebounds against UC Riverside in outrebounding the Highlanders.
LOOKING TOWARDS THE SECOND HALF
If recent history is any indication of how the 49ers will fare over the second half of the season, LBSU just might be warming up. Prior to last year, when they went 4-5 down the stretch, the 49ers had lost just two games in each of the previous four "second halves," going 6-2 in 2001-02 and 1999-98 and 5-2 in 2000-01 and 1999-2000. The 49ers have had a winning Big West mark in each of the past five years.
COMING BACK TO WIN
Three times this season, the 49ers have come back in the second half to defeat their opponent, most recently to close out 2003 against New Orleans. LBSU trailed by seven to the Privateers, coming back to win by two. Previously, the 49ers overcame a 12-point (EWU) and 14-point (USD) second half to win by eight. Two other times (Colorado State and Fresno State) the 49ers came within a single basket.
DRIVING THE POINT HOME
Guard Candice Wilson (Sacramento, CA) has led the 49ers in assists in each of the last five contests, after being the team leader in assists just twice over the first 10 contests. Wilson is averaging 5.2 assists over the past five games. On the year Wilson is averaging 7.5 points and 3.6 assists per game.
McCUTCHEON IS AUTOMATIC
In Big West play guard Crystal McCutcheon (Lancaster) has hit 17-of-19 free throws, helping her lead the team in scoring (during Big West games) at a 13.3 points per game. Overall, McCutcheon is second on the team with a 12.8 points per game average, along with a 51% clip from the field and 75% shooting touch from the charity stripe.
PETRA IS PAY-DIRT
Junior center Petra Gläser (Amtsberg, Germany) continues to lead the team in scoring, averaging 13.9 points and 5.5 rebounds per game. Gläser has hit for double digits in each of the last 14 games, grabbing an even-better 9.0 rebounds per game last week. Gläser is shooting 50% from the field.
CONSISTENT AS ALWAYS
Senior wing Lauren Bull's (Rockford, IL) string of six straight contests with double digits snapped last week, but she has still managed to average 8.0 points per game, double her career average. Bull, who had just two career starts prior to the season, has started eight games this year. Her 87 three-pointers is just six away from tying for second place all-time.
SANTOS JOINS 49ERS
Six-foot-two wing Fernanda Santos (Sao Paulo, Brazil), a member of the Brazilian National Team, became the latest addition to the team, joining the 49ers at the semester. Santos spent the 2002-03 season at Grayson County Junior College in Denison, TX averaging 17.8 points, 6.0 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 2.8 steals per game, shooting 41% from three, 77% from the charity stripe and 43% overall. Her scoring average ranked 24th amongst JUCO's in the state of Texas. As a freshman at Lee University (TN), she averaged 7.5 points and 4.3 rebounds per game, shooting 33% from three and 36% overall.
49ERS PICKED THIRD
LBSU was picked to finish third in both the coaches and media pre-season polls. UC Santa Barbara, which has won the last eight Big West titles was picked to win it. The 49ers have won eighteen conference championships in its history and reached seven Big West Tournament Championship games since 1989. SUN CONTINUES TO REHAB
Redshirt guard Liz Sun (Chatsworth, CA) is out indefinitely after two separate knee injuries, one suffered in the spring of her senior prep season two years ago.
STRONG TRADITION
The Long Beach State program was ranked in the top-10 for much of the 1980's and have finished ranked in the top-20 10 times in its history. For 215 straight weeks from 1979 to 1991, The Beach were ranked in the top-25. LBSU has won 18 conference titles and reached 16 NCAA Tournaments. Despite not having a Kodak All-American since 1988-89, the 49ers ranked seventh all-time in total All-Americans since 1981.
HOW DO YOU SPELL THAT?
Germany native Petra Gläser last name is spelled with an umlat (ä) over the "a" in German and Glaeser in English. The preferred spelling is with the ä, if you can figure out the proper keys (usually alt-u followed by the a) to produce it!
TRANSFERS TO REDSHIRT
Sophomore Val Willhoit (Colorado Springs, CO-Colorado State) and senior Aisha Hollans (Berkeley, CA-USC) will both redshirt this season after transferring. Willhoit is a former All-State guard out of Colorado, while Hollans is a former first team All-Pac 10 guard from USC who averaged 14.3 points and 5.7 rebounds per game in three seasons at Southern Cal.
49ERS INK TWO FOR 2004-05
Jeanie Saunders (Long Beach) and Junior College transfer Meghan Griffith (Rocklin) both signed letters of intent to attend LBSU starting in 2004-05. Saunders, a 5-7 guard from Wilson High, averaged 12.7 points, 4.0 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 3.0 steals as a junior earning second team All-Press-Telegram Dream Team status. Griffith, as a 6-3 freshman at Sierra College in Northern California, averaged 13 points, 8.0 rebounds and 4.0 blocks per game. |
