Long Beach State University
Cal State Fullerton
49ers Bag Senior Night Victory Over Titans
2/24/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 21, 2008
LONG BEACH - LaTorya Barbee scored a career high 17 points to lead the 49ers to a 80-62 win on senior night. Long Beach State's lone senior, Tyresha Calhoun also had a nice game, adding 12 points, seven rebounds and five assists in her final home game.
Hot shooting for the 49ers helped Long Beach State withstand a Fullerton attack that hit eight three-pointers on the night. The 49ers shot 39% from behind the arc on the night, and scored a season high 80 points on the night.
However, the 49ers also did a nice job defensively on the inside limiting Toni Thomas, the conference's leading scorer, to 11 points.
Out to an early 4-2 lead, two charging calls on the 49ers cost Long Beach State a couple of baskets early. However, the 49ers continued to hold even with the Titans as both teams moved up and down the court in a fast tempo.
A pair of threes from Lauren Sims helped Long Beach State take a four-point lead at 23-19, and a Tyresha Calhoun basket along with another fast-break basket from Barbee allowed Long Beach State to jump out to a 27-19 lead.
The 49ers continued to press their advantage, taking a 12-point lead at the 4:22 mark after another running fast break on the way to a season high in first-half points. Long Beach State picked up that mark by a wide margin, scoring 10 points more than their previous high in a half on the way to a 46-28 halftime lead.
Flipping the run of the first half, Fullerton came out quickly out of the break and scored the first seven points of the half. Long Beach State finally got on the board at 16:06 with a three-point play by Courtney Jacob, but the Titans continued to cut into the 49er lead.
The 49ers made a few stops, but Cal State Fullerton finally cut the lead to single digits after Lauren Chow hit her fourth three of the game with 13 minutes to go.
Holding tough, Long Beach State made a few stops that they needed, and eventually worked their lead back to 16 after a pick and roll from Calhoun to Brett Timmons.
With the momentum from that series, the 49ers continued to match the Titans even with an improved Cal State Fullerton attack from the outside to hold on to the win.
Long Beach State will next travel to Cal State Northridge to face the ninth-place Matadors in Northridge. Tipoff for that game is at 2 p.m., a change from the earlier time due to a scheduling conflict with the Northridge men's Bracketbuster game later that evening.
