If the Long Beach State women’s basketball team is seeking to clinch a berth in the Big West Conference Tournament, then it can start by picking up a victory Wednesday in a seemingly must-win predicament.
The 49ers (5-19, 3-7 Big West) — who hold a one-game lead over Cal State Northridge (2-21, 2-8 Big West) for the eighth seed in the conference standings — will face the Matadors in a 7 p.m. tipoff at the Walter Pyramid.
All but one of the nine teams in the conference will qualify for the Big West Tournament, which puts LBSU in jeopardy of missing the postseason.
“Right now, we’re fighting for position in the conference tournament,” LBSU head coach Jody Wynn said. “[Northridge] is one notch behind us and we are considering this as a must-win game.”
Though The Beach has six games left to play in the regular season, it will be the perceived underdog in five of those contests, which will be against the top four teams in the Big West.
CSUN is a team that has had its fair share of struggles this season.
Led by the duo of Jasmine Erving (14.9 points and 7.0 rebounds per game) and Violet Alama (10.2 ppg and 5.7 rpg), the Matadors have yet to solve their depth issues.
Erving and Alama have accounted for nearly half of the team’s scoring and one-third of its rebounding production.
CSUN averages a conference-worst 57.6 points per contest and ranks next to last in points allowed (72.6).
Nonetheless, the Matadors are coming off a stunning 10-point road victory over UC Irvine to snap a nine-game losing streak.
CSUN also set a new Big West season-high that game as it shot a stellar 63.4 percent from the field (27 of 42), including 61.1 percent from 3-point range (11 of 18).
“[The Matadors] shot the ball remarkably against UC Irvine, so they’re playing with a lot of confidence right now,” Wynn said. “And so that’s certainly going to help them coming into our game.”
LBSU, on the other hand, is coming off back-to-back losses by an average margin of 17.5 points and committed a season-worst 36 turnovers in its last contest.
“Every offensive possession [in the last game] was either a missed shot or turnover for us, pretty much,” Wynn said. “I think our biggest problem was focus and toughness.
“I mean, we better shoot 75 percent to win the game if we’re gonna turn the ball over 36 times, and so we’re gonna try to put some more value on the basketball and not play ‘kick the can.'”
On the upside, the ‘Niners dominated the Matadors on their home floor, 64-50, on Jan 5. It marked the only meeting between the two teams this year.
The Beach also held them to a dismal 26.1 percent shooting (18 of 69) and led by double-digits for most of the way.
However, Wynn said her team shouldn’t necessarily assume to have a mental edge over CSUN despite the convincing win.
“[Basketball] is a crazy game,” Wynn said. “We tell our [team] that we can beat anybody on any given night and we can certainly lose to anybody on any giving night, and so we gotta be confident and we gotta be focused.”
After all, the 49ers found just how difficult it was to contain the Matadors’ post players that game. Erving and Alama combined for 36 points and 27 rebounds, which prompted a 52-45 edge on the boards in favor of CSUN.
“They both rebound extremely well on the offensive end,” Wynn said. “So we gotta do a good job keeping them outside of their comfort area offensively and off the offensive boards.”
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