What once seemed like an improbability now appears to be a possibility for the Long Beach State women’s basketball team, whose regular season is beginning to look like a Cinderella story.
After dropping six of their first seven games in Big West Conference action, LBSU was in last-place in the nine-team conference standings and in danger of being the only team to miss the postseason.
Since then, the 49ers have looked like a team poised to contend for the Big West Tournament title in March.
As crazy as it may sound, The Beach has won five of its last six conference games and moved into a tie for fifth place with UC Irvine — a complete 180 from where it was just four weeks ago.
And these weren’t victories that came against teams that were sitting at the bottom of the standings.
These are programs that are currently ranked in the top-5 in the Big West, namely UC Riverside — which is the defending conference champions.
So, what changed?
The turnaround
Well, for starters, LBSU has made a concentrated effort on shutting teams down on the defensive end of the court. The Beach went from surrendering a whopping 74 points per outing, to giving up just 65.6 points per contest in its last six conference games.
If that wasn’t enough, the 49ers have also gone from holding their opponents to 41.9 percent from the field (40.7 percent from 3-point range) to just 36.3 percent shooting (30.5 percent from long distance).
But that isn’t the only factor that has helped propel this team into contention for the Big West Tournament title.
Difference-maker
The ‘Niners have also witnessed the resurgence of one player in particular: team captain Courtney Jacob — whose clutch play down the stretch has guided her team to victory on more than one occasion.
Jacob hit the game-winning free throw in wins over UC Davis and UCI, and has improved her scoring average from 10 to 19.6 points per contest in her last six outings.
But her box score-stuffing ways don’t stop there. She also leads the team in every other major statistical category, including rebounds (7.5), assists (4.5), and steals (2.4) per game in Big West action.
Now, the 49ers find themselves just a game and a half back of fourth-place UC Davis with three games left to play.
If LBSU should finish the season strong, it could potentially move into third place. And since the top-4 teams host the first-round match-ups in the conference tournament, the 49ers have a golden opportunity to play on their home floor, where they hold a 5-3 record in the Big West.
However, if the ‘Niners should finish anything below a fourth seed, then they will need to be able to do something they haven’t done well all season, and that’s win on the road. The Beach has a dismal 1-4 record away from home in conference play.
Not to mention, the 49ers’ last three games of the season will not only be on the road, but against the elite teams in the Big West, including UC Santa Barbara — which dismantled them by 27 points earlier this season.
But let’s not forget that LBSU holds a 4-1 record in rematches against teams in the Big West and is coming off its first three-game winning streak of the year.
And if familiarity has helped the ‘Niners in the past, then there’s a good chance it may help them again as they return to action against the Gauchos for a 7 p.m. tipoff at the Thunderdome on Thursday.
And, well, let’s face it; any team is capable of winning in the Big West this season.
If you don’t believe it, then how do you explain a last-place Cal State Northridge team defeating No.1 Cal Poly last week? Or an eighth-place University of Pacific team beating No. 3 UCR and No. 4 Davis this season?
And let’s not forget about the 49ers, who have had the biggest turnaround in the Big West thus far by knocking off four teams they weren’t “supposed” to beat.
Underdog, or not, if the ‘Niners keep this up, they may just get that fairy-tale ending they’ve been waiting for.
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