Saturday, February 3
La Jolla, Calif.
2:00 PM

Long Beach State University

at

UC San Diego

Sydney Woodley
Photo by: John Fajardo

Beach Women’s Basketball Hits The Road To Face UC San Diego On Saturday Afternoon

2/3/2024 8:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball

Tip-off for Long Beach State at UC San Diego is slated for 2 p.m. at LionTree Arena

LONG BEACH STATE (8-12, 3-7 Big West) at UC SAN DIEGO (9-12, 5-5 Big West)
Date:
Saturday, Feb. 3
Time: 2:00 p.m.
Location: San Diego, Calif.
Venue: LionTree Arena
TV: ESPN+
TV Talent: Ted Mendenhall
Live Stats: UCSDTritons.com
Twitter: @LBSUWBB

Beach Women's Basketball Hits The Road To Face UC San Diego On Saturday Afternoon
The Long Beach State Women's Basketball team is set to travel to San Diego, Calif., to face UC San Diego on Saturday, February 3 at 2 p.m. at LionTree Arena. 

Catch All the Action
The Long Beach State-UC San Diego game will be broadcast live 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). Fans can also follow live stats via UCSDTritons.com

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 brings an 8-12 overall record and a 3-7 Big West mark into the game at UC San Diego on Saturday afternoon.
• The Beach are coming off of a pair of wins over conference foes UC Riverside (54-52) and Cal State Bakersfield (70-57). 
• LBSU opened the 2023-24 campaign with an 82-62 victory over Biola marking the first of Head Coach Amy Wright's collegiate coaching career.
• Long Beach State has had a few key wins this season knocking off Nevada in convincing fashion, 79-52, before handing Colorado State their first loss of the year as the Beach earned their first-ever win over the Rams with an exciting 77-76 victory.
• The Beach have won three Big West contests this season over CSUN (76-58), UC Riverside (54-52), and Cal State Bakersfield (70-57).
• Long Beach State's motto is to play "Fast, Furious, and Fun." So far, the Beach has showcased a fast offense as they average 65.4 points per game to rank second in the conference, while boasting a furious defense as junior guard Sydney Woodley leads The Big West in steals per game (3.44). Additionally, the Beach brings a lot of fun both on and off the court as the team goes out into the stands after every home game for a "3-Minute Drill" in which they meet and mingle with the fans. 
• Long Beach State is led by Savannah Tucker's 12.4 points per game to tie for eighth in The Big West. She also owns a free throw percentage of 82.9 which is good for fourth in the conference. 
• Junior guard Sydney Woodley leads the Beach in steals with 62. She is now averaging a Big West-leading 3.44 steals per game, which ranks her fifth in the nation. Additionally, she is the team's second-leading scorer with 9.9 points per game on a 45.1 field goal percentage to come in fourth in the league. Lastly, Woodley's 1.94 offensive rebounds per game put her in the Top 10 in the conference.
• Senior Casey Valenti-Paea had a career night on Dec. 16 against Pacific as she poured in a career-best 20 points. With her hot offensive output, Valenti-Paea is now averaging 9.2 points per game to rank fourth on the team. She adds 3.5 rebounds per game, while totaling 41 assists. Valenti-Paea has been consistent from behind the arc as she leads the conference with a 45.7 three-point field goal percentage. She also is tied for eighth in the league with 1.95 steals per game.
• So far this season, junior Patricia Chung has recorded a trio of career-highs as she dished out eight assists in the season opener against Biola before picking up 10 rebounds against Colorado State on Dec. 15. She is coming off of a career game against Cal State Bakersfield in which she poured in a career-best 24 points. She contributes 8.1 points per game and 22 steals, while leading the team in assists (50), and coming in second in rebounding (5.0).
• True freshman Jada Crawshaw has been a key component to Long Beach State as she has come off the bench in all 20 games this season and leads the Beach in rebounding (5.1 rpg) and blocks per game (0.95). Her blocking average is good for eighth in The Big West. She also chips in 6.2 points per game, while adding 16 steals and 12 assists. She currently leads LBSU with two double-doubles on the year.
• Joining Coach Wright on the bench this season is a brand new coaching staff 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. On Dec. 28, in the Beach's conference opener, she collected her first career points of her collegiate career. She has played in 16 games so far and is averaging 0.9 rebounds per game and 0.3 points per game,
Lovely Sonnier came to the Beach after playing two years at South Carolina State. The junior guard has played in 17 games, while making 15 starts for LBSU this season. On the year, she is averaging 5.5 points per game and 3.2 rebounds per game, while also adding 13 assists, 14 steals, and nine blocks.
• Junior guard Savannah Tucker is Long Beach State's leading scorer as she is averaging 12.3 points per game on a 36.4 field goal percentage. She also adds 72 boards, 22 assists, 23 steals, and four blocks.
Patricia Chung is coming off of a career-high 24-point performance against Cal State Bakersfield. After her monster game, Chung's scoring averaging went up to 8.1 points per game. She also adds 5.0 rebounds per game, to go along with a team-best 50 assists, while adding 22 steals.
Cheyenne Givens is a graduate transfer who has been heating up offensively. She turned in a career-high tying 19-point performance against at CSUN on Dec. 30. Givens averages 9.3 points per game, while adding 3.0 rebounds per game, to go along with 26 steals, 37 assists, and five blocks.
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. She turned in a career-best performance with 20 points versus Pacific on Dec. 16 night to bring her points per game average up to 9.2. She also contributes 3.5 rebounds per game, to go along with 41 assists. She adds 37 steals and seven blocks on the year.
Jada Crawshaw, a freshman from Darwin, Australia, made her collegiate debut in the LBSU season opener against Biola on Nov. 8. She has since found her groove averaging 6.2 points per game and leading the team in rebounds per game (5.1) to go along with a team-leading 19 blocks.
• Sophomore forward Abby Shoff has come off the bench in 6-of-19 of Long Beach's games this season and is averaging 4.8 rebounds per game. However, she will be unavailable tonight due to an injury to her foot.
Sydney Woodley has started in all 18 games in which she's played. She is the Beach's leader in steals with 62 swipes to average a conference-leading 3.44 steals per game. That mark is good for fifth in the nation. Additionally, Woodley is averaging 9.9 points points per game and 4.7 rebounds per game, to go along with 35 assists and one block.
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 1.4 points per game and 0.9 rebounds per game, while totaling four assists, two steals, and one block in 135 minutes played.
Davai Matthews came back to Long Beach State after seeing limited action last year due to an injury. She has played in all 20 games thus far and has made seven starts. On the year, Matthews is averaging 4.4 rebounds per game and 2.8 points per game, to go along with 16 blocks, 15 assists, and seven steals.

Scouting UC San Diego
• UC San Diego comes into the game against the Beach with a 9-12 overall record. The Tritons are 5-5 in The Big West.
• The Tritons are coming off of gritty 53-52 win in which they edged CSUN on the road.
• With a 5-5 league record, UC San Diego is tied with UC Riverside for sixth place in The Big West standings.
• In The Big West preseason poll, UC San Diego was chosen to finish in a tie for fifth with Cal State Fullerton. Both the Tritons and the Titans garnered 59 points in the preseason poll.
• As a team, the Tritons are averaging 59.2 points per game, while allowing 57.7 for a scoring margin of +1.6.
• From the field, UCSD is shooting 38.1 percent to go along with 37.4 rebounds per game. Additionally, the Tritons average 12.0 assists, 16.5 turnovers, 7.6 steals, and 3.2 blocks per game this season. 
• The Tritons have two double figure scorers in Sumayah Sugapong (14.3 ppg) and Denali Pinto (10.6 ppg).
• In addition to leading the team in scoring, Sugapong also contributes 2.2 rebounds per game to go along with a team-leading 45 assists.
• Katie Springs leads the Tritons in rebounding with 8.3 boards per game. She also contributes 3.1 points per game, wiill adding a team-best 28 steals and 15 blocks.

The Series: The Beach vs. The Tritons
Long Beach State and UC San Diego will meet for the eighth time in program history. In a fairly new series that began in 2021, the Beach lead the all-time series 6-1 LBSU won six straight contests, before UCSD was victorious last season. When playing each other in San Diego, the Beach lead the series 4-0..

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."

20/20 Vision
Junior guard Savannah Tucker wasted no time dropping 20 points as she kicked off the 2023-24 season scoring a career-high 25 points against Biola. At No. 5 Texas, Tucker went off again for 22 points to lead all scorers. The performance marked the third 20-plus point showing of her career as she previously dropped 20 at UC Riverside on March 5, 2022 during her freshman campaign. Now as a junior, Tucker has started in every game thus far and is the Beach's leading scorer with 12.4 points per game. 

Tucker isn't the only Long Beach State player dropping 20 points. On December 16 against Pacific, senior guard Casey Valenti-Paea recorded a career-best 20 points. Against the Tigers, Valenti-Paea shot 57.1 (8-14) from the field and 60.0 (3-5) from long distance to lead the Beach. With her solid offensive showing, she is now averaging 9.6 points per game on the year.

Most recently, Patricia Chung poured in a career-high 24 points last Thursday against Cal State Bakersfield. The senior guard connected on 10-of-15 field goals and 4-of-6 from long distance. On the year, Chung is averaging 8.1 points per game and 5.0 rebounds per game, while adding 50 assists and 22 steals. 

Double-Double Toil And Trouble
This season Long Beach State has seen three separate players record a double-double. Freshman Jada Crawshaw was the first to record that feat as she tallied 12 points and 10 rebounds in her first collegiate double-double against then-No. 6 USC on December 21. Crawshaw is the only LBSU Women's Basketball player with two double-doubles after notching a career-high 15 points and 12 rebounds last Thursday against Bakersfield. Junior Sydney Woodley recorded her first double-double in a Beach uniform against her former team, CSUN, on Dec. 31 when she finished with 12 points and 10 boards in Northridge. Most recently, Casey Valenti-Paea notched a double-double of 11 points and 10 boards at UC Riverside last Saturday.

Among The Nation's Best
Junior guard Sydney Woodley has been on-point defensively as she leads The Big West in steals per game with 3.47, which ranks her fifth in the nation. Woodley is coming off a game in which she tied her career-high with seven swipes against UC Riverside. With Woodley leading the way, Long Beach is third in the conference with 10.8 steals per game this season. 

Next Up
Long Beach State will face Cal Poly on the road next. The Beach and the Mustangs will meet on Saturday, Feb. 10 at 2 p.m. in San Luis Obispo. The game will be broadcast live on ESPN+.\
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