49ers Close Out Regular Season at UC Irvine
Black and Blue Rivalry Series Continues in Orange County
February 27, 2007 PDF VERSION OF THE RELEASE
FINAL HOME GAME SATURDAY
The 49ers (6-22, 3-10 Big West) will travel down the 405 Freeway for their final regular season home game, at UC Irvine (6-22, 3-10 Big West) on Saturday at 4 p.m. The game will also be a part of the Black and Blue Rivalry series, sponsored by Duke's of Huntington Beach. The LBSU Athletics Department leads the series 14-6. The 49er women will begin play at the Big West Tournament on March 7 at the Anaheim Convention Center.
STREAKS OF NOTE
The 49ers enter the final regular season game having gone 1-6 in the month of February, with the only win coming on February 17 against CS Fullerton... two of those losses have been by single digits... UC Irvine has lost six-straight heading into Saturday's game... their last win came at Pacific on February 1.
WHERE THEY STAND
The 49ers and Anteaters are currently tied for sixth place in the Big West standings, a game in front of Pacific, who has two games remaining. LBSU can secure the sixth seed and play at approximately at 2 p.m. on Wednesday with a win over UC Irvine. The only way for LBSU to play the early game (and finish eighth) is for Pacific to win twice over second place UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly and for LBSU to lose to UCI on Saturday.
LAST TIME THROUGH
On the night the 49ers retired two jerseys, Karina Figueroa hit a game-winning shot with 29 seconds left to defeat UC Irvine 54-53. It was Figueroa's fourth 20-point game over the last five contests at the time, as she finished with 28 points. Angie Ned's baseline jumper with 2.1 seconds rimmed out, on a shot that would have won it.
SOMETHING ABOUT MARY
Head Coach Mary Hegarty is in her fourth year at the helm, going 217-149 in 13-plus years of coaching at Chapman (160-92) and Long Beach State (57-57). LBSU was 18-10 in 2006-07 in which the 49ers were co-champions of the Big West and Hegarty was named the Big West Coach of the Year. Hegarty is one of three of the greatest women's basketball players in UCLA History, joining assistants, Hall of Famer Denise Curry and Nicole Anderson.
BIG WEST TOURNAMENT
All eight teams in the Big West Conference will be a part of the annual tournament at the Anaheim Convention Center from Mary 7 to 10. Tiered seeding will be effect, as the top four teams in the conference have some type of bye. For ticket information call (562) 985- 4949. All session passes are $60 for both the men and women, or just $30 for all the women's action.
LOOKING AHEAD
Since the Big West Tournament moved to Anaheim in 2001, LBSU is 6-6. They have played in five Semifinals and one Final (2001). In Conference Finals play, LBSU is a combined 5-5 since 1986.
IT ALL STARTS WITH KARINA
The 49er offense this season starts with sophomore guard Karina Figueroa (Corona), a member of the Peruvian Basketball team this past summer. Figueroa has scored in double figures in 18-straight games and hit 20 points six times during the conference schedule. She is averaging 16.1 points per game.
O'BRIEN SOLID DOWN THE STRETCH
Sophomore Kaiti O'Brien (Fresno) had two double doubles over a four-game stretch to close out February, tallying 14 points and 16 rebounds in the last game at UC Davis. She is averaging 9.5 points and 8.0 rebounds per game since February 3.
FRESHMAN REMAINS IN LINEUP
Freshman forward Brett Timmons (Irvine) has remained in the starting lineup for most of the conference schedule, and looks to be more consistent, tallying double digits in every other game since February 3. Over that stretch, Timmons, a 2.8 point per game scorer, is averaging 5.5 points and 5.4 rebounds per game.
AS THE INJURY BUG TURNS
The 49ers will be without the services of forward Amanda Foster (knee) and senior Val Willhoit (back). Lauren Sims (leg) has been back and fourth on the disabled list with a stress fracture. She had her best game on February 24 since the early part of the season, scoring 11 points off the bench.
STILL TOUGH AT HOME
Long Beach State is 27-11 over its last 38 home games dating back to Nov. 24, 2004. Also in that span, LBSU has knocked off two ranked opponents (Houston, Dec. 20, 2004, 54-52 and USC, Nov. 23, 2005, 51-46). The 49ers went 13-2 in the Walter Pyramid last season were 5-7 this season.
DUO JOINS THE RAFTERS
On January 27 the 49ers retired two of its all-time greats when current Sparks General Manager Penny Toler and her No. 4 jersey and Olympic gold medalist Cindy Brown and her No. 53 jersey were official retired. Both were All-Americans at The Beach and both played on the Final Four teams in the mid-1980's. The duo join Wade Trophy winner, LaTaunya Pollard, who played at LBSU in the early 1980's.
WHERE THEY RANK...
Karina Figueroa ranks third in the league in scoring (16.1), first in free throw shooting (.828) and eighth in assists (3.0)... Tyresha Calhoun ranks third in free throw shooting (.753), eighth in steals (1.7) and fifth in assists (3.6)... Kaiti O'Brien is 14th in rebounding (5.7).
A VERY LONG YEAR
The 22 losses this season are a school-record. The program has won single digits just two times over the past four decades, going 7-19 in 1997-98 under Dallas Bolla and 9-17 in 1992-1993 under Glenn McDonald. LBSU has never finished in last place in the standings, so this is just a blip on the radar. The team features 12 newcomers (eight freshmen) and four returnees.
WELCOME THE NEXT WAVE
LaTorya Barbee (Moreno Valley/Canyon Springs HS), Brittany Brumfield (Long Beach/Long Beach Poly HS), and Ashley Bookman (Redondo Beach/Redondo Union HS), have all signed NLI's for the 2007-08 season.
SQUAD BREACKDOWN
Seniors 1 (Willhoit); Juniors 3 (Calhoun, Musina, Pagani); Sophomores 4 (Figueroa, O'Brien, Pena, Saucedo); Freshmen 8 (Bagley, Beckner, Jacob, Johnson, Sims, Takata, Timmons, Wade); Redshirt Freshman 1 (Foster)
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