From the opening tip, the Long Beach State women’s basketball team was never able to get in its comfort zone in their matchup with Cal State Fullerton.
The Titans dropped the 49ers 74-53 Saturday afternoon at Titan Gym behind a career-high 23 points from sophomore Mya Olivier.
What was an 11-point Titan lead at the break, quickly turned into a 18-point advantage behind a barrage of CSUF scoring once the second half began.
The ‘Niners (9-12, 4-4 Big West) comeback attempts foiled under the onslaught of 3-pointers from CSUF. The Titans are not known for their long range shooting — shooting just 28.2 percent from behind the arc as a team on the season.
Fullerton (9-11, 2-6 Big West) hit on 10 of 21 (47.6 percent) from distance. Senior Megan Richardson connected on 3 of 5, while Alicya Crisp hit on 3 of 4 from distance.
LBSU head coach Jody Wynn said that her squad wasn’t focused defensively.
“It just hurts when you don’t have the effort defensively,” she said. “You can’t always control whether the shots go in, but you can certainly control your focus and effort.”
The game was played at a frenetic pace, one that was dictated mainly by the Titans. The ‘Niners were knocked back onto their heels from the opening tip, and were unable to get into a flow offensively.
“We talked about bringing effort and focus all week,” said Wynn. “Give credit to them, though. They stepped up and hit 10 three’s.”
She added: “That wasn’t the defense we played last week [in games against UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly]. There wasn’t communication, and there wasn’t the rotation.”
Freshman Bianka Balthazar paced The Beach on the afternoon scoring 11 points on 3 of 7 shooting, including 4 of 6 from the free throw line. Freshman Alex Sanchez scored 11 points on 4 of 5 shooting.
Senior Tipesa Moorer struggled on the contest, scoring 10 points on just 4 of 13 shooting.
The 49ers shot just 34.6 (18 of 52) percent from the field for the game. The Beach turned the ball over 19 times which led to 18 Fullerton points.
While the Titans were on fire from long distance, the ‘Niners connected on just 4 of 15 (26.7 percent)
CSUF used a 6-0 run which lasted more than two minutes to take their first double-digit lead of the contest at 29-18. The Titans carried the eleven-point difference into the break, 35-24
Richardson scored 15 points on 5 of 13 shooting for the Titans, while pulling down six rebounds and dishing out three assists. Junior guard Alicya Crisp scored 11 points on 4 of 6 shooting.
LBSU will take on UC Irvine on Thursday at the Bren Events Center. Tip is scheduled for 5 p.m.
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