Sports, Women's Basketball

Turnovers, rebounding issues cost LBSU in exhibition

Box score

Outside of the first four minutes, not a whole lot went right for the Long Beach State women’s basketball team Saturday night.

The 49ers lost, 58-39, to Division II program Cal Poly Pomona in an exhibition game in front of 500 fans at the Walter Pyramid. It is the second consecutive year that the ‘Niners have lost an exhibition game to the Broncos.

LBSU managed just 15 second-half points on 6-of-22 shooting (27.3 percent) and finished 16 of 55 (29.1 percent) for the game. Freshman guard Brandi Henton was the lone 49er to score in double figures, finishing with 12 points on 4-of-12 from the field, but also committed 10 turnovers.

LBSU failed to show much patience running the offense and, as a result, turned the ball over 31 times. Pomona scored 22 points off turnovers.

“If we’re going to allow people to have second-chance opportunities, and we’re going to turn the ball over 30 times a game, and we’re not going to shoot the ball worth a darn and continue to foul, then we’re going to lose to anybody,” an animated second-year head coach Jody Wynn said.

“It’s obviously embarrassing but we’ve just got to keep working. … We’ve got to have kids that are role players step up and be primary players. And they’ve got to step up to the challenge.”

Pomona won the contest despite shooting just 27 percent (20 of 74) from the field.

“If they shot worth a darn, it would have been a lot more ugly,” Wynn said.

Broncos center Megan Ford had her way with the LBSU frontline, scoring on a series of post moves that displayed excellent footwork to shake the 49ers. The 6-foot-1 junior scored 18 points on 9-of-15 shooting and grabbed seven rebounds to pace Pomona.

“We didn’t have a post presence,” Wynn said.

Freshman Janae Coffee, a 6-foot-3 center, did not play because of a disciplinary one-game suspension, Wynn said, but was “hopeful” that Coffee would be available for the season opener.

Reyana Colson, a 5-foot-6 guard, added 18 points for the Broncos despite a 5-of-25 performance from the field and tied for a game-high 11 rebounds with teammate J.J. Judge.

Pomona was also able to get to the free-throw line for 26 attempts compared to LBSU’s 10 tries.

“What I hope (to fix before next week’s season opener) is not fouling and not giving up offensive boards,” Wynn said.

Despite all the numbers the box score did show, Wynn was not pleased with her team’s defensive effort.

“Everyday to start practice since Oct. 5 we have taken charges,” Wynn said. “Did we take one tonight? No.”

The Broncos took their first double-digit lead on a pair of Judge free throws to push the advantage to 45-35 with 7:22 to play. La’kenya Simon West later drilled a 3-pointer with 1:09 left to give Pomona its largest lead of the contest at 58-37.

Pomona opened the second half on a 10-4 run through the first seven minutes. The Beach was held scoreless through the first 4:46 until an Ashley Bookman layup.

Just 1 minute, 54 seconds into the second half, Wynn substituted out her starters — forwards Bookman and Ella Clark, and guards Amanda Sims, Tipesa Moorer and Henton — for her bench.

“We’re still learning how to play with each other,”Moorer said. “[All of the mistakes] are fixable.

“I think a lot of us just gave up and gave in.”

Pomona went on a 9-3 run in the final two minutes of the first half, but Henton’s steal and coast-to-coast layup as time expired cut the LBSU halftime deficit to 27-24.

The game started well for the ‘Niners, who converted four of its first five attempts including a Sendy Valles runner in the lane to take a 9-4 lead with 16:05 left in the half. The rest of the half turned sloppy as LBSU committed 17 turnovers and made just 6 of 28 shots to close the half.

Pomona took advantage of a shorthanded LBSU’s lack of size to grab 23 offensive rebounds, and took its first lead of the game on a Colson basket with 2:08 left in the first half to start the closing run.

The banged up 49ers played without seniors Melanie Lisnock and Courtney Jacob, sophomore transfer Jhakia McDonald, and freshmen Alex Sanchez and Chantel Dooley.

Lisnock, a 5-foot-7 point guard who started 14 of 30 games last season, could miss up to six weeks with a stress fracture underneath her left kneecap, Wynn said.

“[Lisnock] had the greatest practice of her life, we go to the training room and our trainer said, ‘Oh, I just got your medical report back from your MRI you had a couple days ago and you have a stress fracture,'” Wynn said.

Jacob, McDonald, Sanchez and Dooley have been injured since the team’s first practice, and Wynn had already ruled McDonald out for the season.

LBSU, picked to finish seventh by the media in the nine-team Big West Conference, will open the 2010-11 season next Saturday against Oregon State in Corvallis, Ore. Tip-off is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. at Gill Coliseum.

The Beavers, who finished 11-20 last season, will be under the direction of first-year head coach Scott Rueck. OSU was picked to finish last in the Pac-10 Conference coaches’ poll.


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