LBSU Women’s Basketball Continues Road Swing At Fresno State

Tuesday, November 21

Fresno, Calif.

6:00 PM

Long Beach State University

Fresno State

Photo by: John Fajardo

LBSU Women’s Basketball Continues Road Swing At Fresno State

11/20/2023 8:03:00 PM | Women's Basketball

LBSU Game Notes

The Beach face the Bulldogs on the road in a Tuesday night match up

By: Lindy Zamora, Associate Athletic Communications Director

LONG BEACH STATE (2-1) @ FRESNO STATE (3-1)
Date: Tuesday, Nov. 21
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Location: Fresno, Calif.
Arena: Save Mart Center
TV: None
Live Stream: Mountain West Network
Live Stats: StatBroadcast.com
Radio: TheVarsityNetwork.com
Twitter: @LBSUWBB

LBSU Women's Basketball Continues Road Swing At Fresno State
The Long Beach State Women's Basketball team continues its road swing at Fresno State. The Beach and the Bulldogs will face off on Tuesday, Nov. 21 at 6 p.m. at the Save Mart Center in Fresno, Calif.

Catch All the Action
The game at Fresno State will be broadcast live on the Mountain West Network. Fans can also follow stats updates on StatBroadcast.com. All Long Beach State home games will be broadcast on ESPN+. Fans can sign up for ESPN+ for $9.99 per month ($99.99 per year) at ESPN.com, ESPNPlus.com, or on the ESPN App. It is also available as part of the Disney Bundle that gives subscribers access to Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu for $14.99 per month (Hulu with ads) or $24.99 per month (Hulu without ads).

Staying Social
Follow Long Beach State women's basketball on Twitter and Instagram at
@LBSUWBB. You can also stay up-to-date on all things Long Beach State by following @LBSUAthletics on Twitter. Be sure to "like" us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram at @LBSU. And don't forget our hashtag #GoBeach.

About the Beach
• Long Beach State opened the 2023-24 season with a pair of convincing wins over Biola (82-62) and Nevada (79-57) at the Walter Pyramid.
• The victory over Biola marked the first of Head Coach Amy Wright's collegiate coaching career.
• LBSU is looking to bounce back after dropping an 82-71 road contest to California Baptist last week.
• Wright's team is expected to bring "Fast, Furious, Fun" to the Beach as the team will showcase a fast offense, a furious defense, and a lot of fun both on and off the court.
• The Beach have a new look this season as they lost all five starters from a year ago, and are returning five letterwinners and three redshirts. LBSU is also welcoming in four newcomers - two freshmen and two transfers.
• Junior guard Savannah Tucker is one of the Beach's returners. She is Long Beach State's leading scorer averaging 15.7 points per game.
• Sophomore forward Abby Shoff came back to LBSU and is the squad's second-leading scorer with 11.7 points per game. She also leads the team in rebounding with 7.0 boards per game.
• Rounding out LBSU's double-figure scorers, is graduate transfer Cheyenne Givens who led the Beach in scoring at CBU with 17 points to bring her season average to 10.7 points per game.
• Junior Patricia Chung was incredible in the season opener as she dished out a career-high eight assists, while also logging nine points and seven rebounds. Since then, Chung has settled in to averaging 9.3 points per game and 4.0 rebounds per game, while still leading the team with 10 assists.
• Redshirt sophomore Sydney Woodley leads the Beach in steals with 10 over the last three games. Additionally, she contributes 9.7 points per game and 5.3 rebounds per game.
• The bench will have a different look to is as well. Coach Wright's coaching staff is comprised of Brian Rosario, Jashae Lee, and Raru Archer, while Brittany Klaman will be the squad's director of operations.
• The Beach have been picked to finish seventh in the Big West Preseason Coaches Poll with a total of 45 points. Hawaii, which garnered 95 points and six first-place votes was chosen as the league winner. Meanwhile UC Irvine (88 points, two first-place votes) and UC Davis (85 points, three first-place votes) were expected to finish second and third to round out the top three.

Player Notes
• Lauren Cummings is an incoming freshman guard who hails from Billings, Mont. The 6-foot Cummings made her collegiate debut in the season opener against Biola and recorded her first career rebound in just under three minutes of action.
• Lovely Sonnier came to the Beach after playing two years at South Carolina State. The junior guard has started in all three games for LBSU thus far. On the year, she is averaging 4.0 points per game and 3.3 rebounds per game, while also adding four steals, four assists, and one block.
• Junior guard Savannah Tucker is Long Beach State's leading scorer as she is averaging 15.7 points per game on a 44.1 field goal percentage (15-34). She also adds 11 board, seven assists, and three steals.
• Patricia Chung is Long Beach State's leader in assists as the junior guard has dished out 10 on the year. Additionally, she is averaging 9.3 points per game and 4.0 rebounds per game.
• Cheyenne Givens is a graduate transfer who had her best offensive game last week at California Baptist when she led the Beach with 17 points. She is the team's third leading scorer as she averages 10.7 points per game, while adding 1.7 rebounds per game, and totaling three steals, three blocks, and two assists.
• Kennan Ka earned the start in the Long Beach State season opener against Biola and played in two minutes and 30 seconds before leaving the court due to a season-ending injury.
• After redshirting for the Beach a year ago, Casey Valenti Paea made her long awaited LBSU debut against Biola and earned her first start in Black and Gold against Nevada. On the year, she is averaging 5.7 points per game and 3.0 rebounds per game, to go along with eight assists and seven steals.
• Jada Crawshaw, a freshman from Sydney, Australia, made her collegiate debut in the LBSU season opener against Biola on Nov. 8. She has since averaged 4.7 points per game and 5.0 rebounds per game, while also chipping in three blocks, two assists, and two steals.
• Sophomore forward Abby Shoff has come off the bench in all three of Long Beach's games this season and is leading the Beach in rebounding (7.0), while her 11.7 points per game are good for second on the team. Shoff also adds four assists and one block on the season.
• Sydney Woodley has started in all three games for Long Beach State. She is the Beach's leader in steals with 10 swipes to average 3.33 steals per game, which is tops in The Big West. She also has contributed 9.7 points points per game and 5.3 rebounds per game, to go along with three assists.
• Olivia Moore redshirted last season at Long Beach State and made her collegiate debut for the Beach in the season opener against Biola. On the year she is averaging 2.3 points per game and 1.0 rebounds per game, while totaling two assists and one blocks in nearly 18 minutes played.
• Davai Matthews came back to Long Beach State after seeing limited action last year due to an injury. In three games thus far, she is averaging 3.0 points per game and 4.0 rebounds per game. She also adds three blocks, one assist, and one steal.

Scouting Fresno State
• Fresno State brings a 3-1 overall record into the game against Long Beach State.
• The Bulldogs opened the season with three-straight wins over Fresno Pacific (70-42), UC Merced (100-47), and Pepperdine (74-55), before suffering a 65-63 loss at Cal State Bakersfield on Saturday.
• As a team, the Bulldogs are averaging 76.8 points per game, while allowing 52.3 for a scoring margin of 24.5.
• From the field, Fresno State is shooting 43.7 percent. They are averaging 41.5 rebounds per game, while also averaging 10.3 assists, 16.0 turnovers, 11.8 steals, and 1.8 blocks per game this season.
• The Bulldogs boast four double-figure scorers led by Mia Jacobs who is averaging 15.3 point per game. Deajanae Harvery comes in right behind Jacobs with 15.0 ppg, while Taija Sta. Maria adds 12.8 ppg, and Keely Brown rounds out the quartet with 10.0 ppg.
• Sta. Maria leads the team in assists with 13 helpers on the year. She also adds 2.3 boards per game and six steals.
• Bineta Diatta is the Bulldogs' leading rebounder with 6.5 boards per game. Coming in hot on her heels is Sydney Dethman who is averaging 6.3 rebounds per game. Rounding out the squad's top three rebounders is Jacobs with 6.0 per game.
• Kylee Fox has been solid for the Bulldogs this season as she leads the team with 11 steals, while chipping in 7.3 points per game and 2.8 rebounds per game.

The Series: The Beach vs. The Bulldogs
Long Beach State and Fresno State will meet for the 33rd time in program history. Overall, the Beach lead the all-time series 21-11. When playing each other in Fresno, the series is knotted at 6-6. The two teams will face off for the first time since 2008 when the Bulldogs emerged victorious, 76-63, on December 29, 2008 in Fresno. The Bulldogs have won the last four games against the Beach as LBSU is looking for its first win over Fresno State since November 13, 1998 when Long Beach defeated the Bulldogs, 72-56.

Fast, Furious, and Fun
When asked what to expect from the Beach this season, sophomore forward Abby Shoff responded, "Fast, furious, and fun! That's really what we are. We're very energized. You can tell we're having a lot of fun out there."

Coach Wright expanded saying, "(The fans) should expect games in the 80s and 90s. A lot of threes going up. A lot of quick buckets. Playing fast is us trying to score between 8-12 seconds on the shot clock. So, we want to get the ball up and take a really good shot. We want to share the basketball.

"Furious is defensively, we want to get after you," Wright continued. "We want to create havoc on that end. We've got to have a chip on our shoulder. Not necessarily playing mad, but playing hectic. Playing with intentionality of being disruptive.

"And finally, fun explains itself. This is a game. The players should be having fun. The coaches should be having fun. The fans should be having fun. If we're playing the game the right way, it's going to be fun."

The Aussie Connection
Despite their being an 8,150 mile distance between Long Beach, Calif., and Australia, there is an Aussie connection at the Beach. Last season, when junior guard Casey Valenti Paea joined the squad from Melbourne, Australia by way of the University at Buffalo, she was the only one on the roster from Down Under. However, this season two more Aussies have joined her on the team in freshman forward Jada Crawshaw and director of operations Brittany Klaman.

Crawshaw hails from Sydney where she prepped at Barker College. She also gained experience playing for the Sydney Comets and the Sydney Flames. A a naturally gifted player, Crawshaw went on to be selected to the All-Australia Team and earned a spot on the U19 Aus Gems squad where she competed at the Centre of Excellence on one of four junior national team camps.

Klaman is originally from Point Cook in Melbourne where she played at Williamstown High School before heading to the United States for her collegiate career. In college, Klaman played at Eastern Washington and California Baptist, before joining the Long Beach State staff.

Team Identity
LB Grit has been long associated with the Long Beach State Men's Volleyball program. However, when asked to describe her team's identity, Coach Wright was quick to say, "Gritty. Scrappy. Chippy." She went on to explain that her current team is filled with physical players who "get in there and tangle up, and talk their talk." Wright likes the hard-nosed, blue collar style of play her team has on the court. "Those three words explain the personality of this team. And you've got to be that way. If you're going to be running fast, shooting these shots, and guarding hard, you've got to play with a little chip on your shoulder."

Next Up
Long Beach State will continue its road swing as the Beach face Pepperdine on Monday, Nov. 27 at 6 p.m. in Malibu, Calif. The game will be broadcast live on ESPN+.