Long Beach State University Athletics
LBSU Hosts CSUN in Thursday Big West Showdown
2/2/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
CSUN (5-16, 3-4 Big West) at
Long Beach State (16-5, 5-2 Big West)
Date: Thursday, Feb. 4
Time: 7 p.m. (PST)
Location: Walter Pyramid (4,200) - Long Beach, Calif.
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Game Notes: Long Beach State 
The Long Beach State women's basketball team looks to extend its four-game win streak this Thursday, Feb. 4, when it welcomes CSUN to the Walter Pyramid for a 7 p.m. Big West showdown.
QUICK HITS
• Long Beach State is on a four-game win streak and has come out on top in five of its last six outings.
• The Beach leads the Big West in overall wins (16) and is now tied for second in the conference at 5-2.
• LBSU ranks first in the Big West and 14th in the country with 21.2 turnovers forced per game.
• The 49ers have forced 20 or more turnovers in each of their last four outings.
• Long Beach State has held 12 of its 21 opponents to 60 points or fewer, and five to under 50.
• The Beach made a program and Big West record 20 3-pointers at Cal State Fullerton on Jan. 9.
• Raven Benton is 68 points shy of becoming the third player in the Jody Wynn era to reach the 1,000-point milestone.
• Benton has made 18 consecutive free throws and ranks seventh in school history with 297 career FTs.
LAST TIME OUT
Long Beach State brought its defensive intensity to another level in the second half and junior Madison Montgomery carried the offensive load, scoring 10 of her 18 points in the fourth quarter, to lift the 49ers to a 65-53 win over Cal Poly last Saturday at the Walter Pyramid. The Beach ended up outscoring the Mustangs 21-to-5 in the final period.
Montgomery was 8-of-14 from the field for her team-high 18 points, while adding five rebounds and three steals. Junior Raven Benton also netted her 14th double-figure scoring game with 14 points. Classmate Anna Kim contributed 10 points and four assists, while junior Jewelyn Sawyer chipped in eight points and a career-high five steals.
The 49ers ended the evening with 14 steals, and scored 35 points off 29 Cal Poly turnovers. They also shot 42.9 percent.
SCOUTING THE MATADORS
CSUN (5-16, 3-4 Big West) is riding a three-game win streak after defeating UC Irvine, 83-64, and Cal State Fullerton, 79-52, last week. Freshman center Channon Fluker, who recently earned back-to-back Big West Player of the Week honors, has paced the Matadors with 10.7 points and 8.1 rebounds per game. She has four-straight double-doubles and is averaging 23.8 points and 12.0 boards during that stretch. Sophomore guard Serafina Maulupe has also registered 10.7 points and 2.5 assists per outing.
SERIES RECORD
Long Beach State leads in its all-time series with CSUN, 36-17, but the Matadors have won four in a row. They topped the 49ers, 77-61, in Northridge and 67-52 in Long Beach last year. LBSU's last win in the series came at the Walter Pyramid on Feb. 9, 2013 (70-63).
BEACH FOR THREE
Long Beach State is tops in the Big West with 140 3-pointers made (6.7/game). Every 49er has connected from long distance and seven have hit at least 10 triples, including Raven Benton (25), Jessica Gertz (22), Anna Kim (18), Chanterria Jackson (18), Gigi Hascheff (15), Jewelyn Sawyer (14) and Madison Montgomery (11).
The 49ers have made at least five threes in 15 games and went off for a Big West-record 20 3-pointers at Cal State Fullerton on Jan. 9. Their 20 threes also shattered the previous program record of 13, which the Beach established earlier this year vs. Portland State (Nov. 15). Nine of LBSU's 11 players drained a shot from behind the arc with seven making multiple treys against the Titans.
CHASING 1,000
In her two-plus years at the Beach, junior Raven Benton has compiled 932 career points. Benton, who is averaging a team-best 12.7 points per game, is on pace to reach the 1,000-point milestone this year. If she gets to the benchmark by the end of the 2015-16 campaign, she will be the third 49er to do so in the last two seasons and the first to accomplish the feat in her third year at LBSU since Crystal McCutcheon (2006).
Benton has reached double digits in scoring 14 times this season. She netted a career-high 31 points in a non-conference win over UNLV on Dec. 20. That was the first 30-point performance by a 49er in five years. She also finished with 23 vs. Hawai'i and 22 against Cal State Fullerton, marking her eighth and ninth career 20-plus point games.
JEWELYN SHINES
Junior Jewelyn Sawyer has emerged as one of Long Beach State's top players in 2015-16. Sawyer has reached double figures in scoring 13 times and has accounted for three of LBSU's four double-doubles. She has also led the Beach in rebounding on 12 occasions. On the season, Sawyer has registered 10.7 points and a team-best 6.8 rebounds per game, marking a significant improvement from last year when she averaged 2.4 points and 3.6 rebounds.
Sawyer started her breakout campaign by netting a career-high 20 points against San Diego State. She was the first 49er to hit 20 in a season opener since Karina Figueroa (23) and Lauren Sims (20) both accomplished the feat in 2009. The Paramount, Calif., native later matched her career best with 20 points at USC, while also finishing with 16 points at Seattle and UC Davis. Sawyer added a career-high 11 rebounds at Houston, and ranks third on the team with 1.7 assists per outing. She has dished out at least one assist in 18 of 21 games.
MADI'S BLOCK PARTY
Junior Madison Montgomery (Englewood, Colo.) is fifth in the Big West with 1.2 blocks per contest. She had a streak of eight games with at least one block from Dec. 13-Jan. 9. Over the last 13 contests, she has totaled 20 of her team-leading 26 blocked shots. Montgomery, who has recorded multiple blocks eight times this year, finished with a season-high three at Pacific, at Denver and vs. Hawai'i. The 6-foot-1 forward is also averaging 8.0 points and 4.6 rebounds per outing. She notched career highs of 19 points vs. UNLV, 13 rebounds at Pacific and five assists at Seattle U. Montgomery added 11 points against the Tigers for her third career double-double.
BACK ON TRACK
Junior Anna Kim started the season making 66.7 percent (6-of-9) of her 3-point attempts, including a perfect 4-for-4 performance from long distance at Houston on Nov. 19. In the following game at LSU, Kim suffered an elbow injury that affected her shot as she went 2-of-19 from behind the arc over the next nine outings. The Fullerton, Calif., native got back on track with a three at Denver on Dec. 28, marking her first triple since Nov. 27. She continued to roll at Seattle U with two threes and 15 points, and most recently, made four of her five 3-point attempts for a season-best 18 points at UC Davis. Kim, who averaged 14 points in LBSU's two contests last week, has now made 11 treys over a nine-game stretch, and ranks eighth in school history with a career 3-point field goal percentage of 36.2.
TURNOVER TREND
Long Beach State forced a Big West-leading 21.4 turnovers per game last year, and has continued that trend in 2015-16 with a conference-best 446 turnovers forced (21.2/game). That mark also ranks 14th in the nation. The 49ers have pressured 13 teams into 20 or more turnovers this season. They caused Portland State to commit a season-high 30 miscues, while they also wreaked havoc on San Diego State (21), UC Davis (21), Colorado (22), Denver (23), Houston (24), UC Irvine (24), LSU (26), UTEP (26), Northern Arizona (27), Cal State Fullerton (27, 23) and Cal Poly (29). Since head coach Jody Wynn's first year at the helm of the program in 2009-10, the Beach has forced 19.1 turnovers per game.
DEFENSIVE MINDED
The Beach has allowed more than 60 points only nine times this season, and in four of those outings, the 49ers still held their opponents under their season scoring average. Most impressive was the fact that they kept San Francisco (66) and USC (69) to fewer than 70, despite both teams entering the match-up averaging more than 75 points per contest. Portland State and UC Riverside have been the only teams to register more than 70 points against LBSU this year.
PROTECT THE PYRAMID
LBSU has been tough to beat at home in recent years. Since the start of the 2011-12 campaign, the Beach boasts a 52-22 (.703) record at the Walter Pyramid. The 49ers, who have posted at least 10 wins on their home court in each of the last four years, are currently 7-3 in the `Mid.
WYNN WINS
Seventh-year head coach Jody Wynn (106-104) became the fourth coach in program history to join the century club with her 100th career victory coming at Denver on Dec. 28. The past three-plus seasons have been especially productive for Wynn and the 49ers as they have won 71 games and made two WNIT appearances. Wynn is also one of four LBSU head coaches with a career record over .500.
UP NEXT
Long Beach State will make its annual trip to Hawai'i next Thursday, Feb. 11, when it takes on the Rainbow Wahine at 5:30 p.m. (HT)/7:30 p.m. (PT). The Beach then returns home to host UC Santa Barbara at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 13.
