For a player with as much tough luck the past two seasons as Karina Figueroa, it’s hard to imagine that Friday the 13th could be one of her better days.
Her 23-point, 10-assist double-double and four steals led the Long Beach State women’s basketball team to a 76-68 upset over Prairie View A&M in the season opener at the Walter Pyramid.
Figueroa, who has been sidelined for most of the past two years with a recurring foot injury, didn’t take long to find her game and make an impact.
“This is my first win out of my five years that I’ve been here that we actually won our first game,” she said. “I feel like the first game of the season — whatever it is, win or loss — is going to explain the rest of the season.”
The 49ers looked like a well-oiled machine with her on the floor, and not like a team adjusting to a new coaching staff and system. Without Figueroa on the floor, however, LBSU looked out of sync and that’s probably what prompted first-year head coach Jody Wynn to play the fifth-year senior for all but four of the 20 minutes in the first half.
Figueroa ran the offense fluidly and came away with six points and six assists in the first half, as the ‘Niners trailed just 34-32 at the break. She was able to penetrate the lane with ease and find her shooters for wide-open 3-point opportunities.
“I wasn’t really sure how much of an impact I was going to be,” said Figueroa, who shot 7-of-14 from the field. “I just took whatever [Prairie View A&M] gave me.”
Figueroa’s impact was made on the defensive end of the floor, as well.
Last season, the 49ers were caught with their hands down constantly, but the 5-foot-8 point guard got her hand on numerous deflections that resulted in three first-half steals.
With 16:20 remaining, Wynn gave Figueroa a breather and LBSU eventually found a rhythm without its floor general. The team even extended its lead to 12 points when she eventually made her return to the floor with just more than 13 minutes to play.
Much like the first half, Figueroa calmly found Wade wide open in the corner for another 3-pointer with 11:25 left to give LBSU a 51-40 lead and force Panthers head coach Cynthia Cooper-Dyke — yes, former WNBA MVP Cynthia Cooper — to lash out at her team and call a timeout.
With Prairie View A&M threatening, the Corona native handled the press, let her teammates get to their spots and found Lauren Sims on the wing for another open 3-pointer to push the lead back to 66-62 with 5:36 remaining.
“All of my buckets, I owe to her. She was finding me,” said Sims, who hit 7-of-11 from the field, including 6-of-9 from 3-point range, to finish with 20 points.
Figueroa reached a personal milestone when she connected for her 999th and 1,000th career points at the free-throw line to give LBSU a 68-66 lead with 3:07 to play.
She then capped off her night and Wynn’s first career coaching victory with a steady drive to her right, drew a foul on a layup and finished the traditional 3-point play with 55.8 seconds to score the contest’s final points, followed by an emotional yell to her bench.
“To me, she’s one of the best point guards around,” Wynn said. “She managed the game, she handled the pressure. When you get 10 assists, four steals and you knock down the shots — 9-for-9 from the free-throw line — that’s what all good point guards need to do. They need to knock down free throws down the stretch.”