For the first time this year the Long Beach State women’s basketball team will play two road rematches, facing UC Santa Barbara on Thursday at 7 p.m. followed by a game against Big West leader Cal Poly on Saturday at 4 p.m.
The last time LBSU met up with these teams, The Beach beat UCSB 72-53 thanks to a second half in which the ‘Niners outscored the Gauchos 40-26.
Two days later, the 49ers battled the Mustangs in a thrilling loss that was sent to overtime after junior guard Hallie Meneses made a game-tying 3-pointer that left 0.2 seconds on the clock.
The 107-102 loss on Jan. 18 was the first game in eight years in which the 49ers managed to hit the century mark.
With Cal Poly boasting a 9-1 record in Big West action, the 49ers remain two slots behind them, sharing a 5-4 record with UC Irvine, UC Davis and Hawai’i.
“Every game has its own storyline to it and we’re going to compete as hard as we possibly can,” head coach Jody Wynn said. “They can’t expect anything less than [what they saw against Cal Poly] and let the chips fall where they fall. We’re without Alex Sanchez, but we’re gonna do our best to take it one game at a time.”
Being without junior co-captain Alex Sanchez is not something new, but the road to the Big West tournament does get a bit tougher when she’s gone.
However, Wynn has done her best at trying to steer clear of making excuses. The 49ers have just seven regular season games left: three at home and four on the road.
“We can’t get caught up on the dessert,” she said. “We gotta focus on the day to day process. We’re not thinking about March at all right now … If we solely focus on the Big West tournament then we will pass up detailed opportunities that we need to take care of to be at our best in March.”
UCSB is riding a four-game losing streak but is led by guards Nicole Nesbit and Melissa Zornig. Nesbit is averaging 15.6 points per contest while Zornig averages 12.6.
The opposite can be said for Cal Poly, which is currently enjoying a six-game winning streak on the shoulders of Molly Schlemer. Schlemer has averaged a Big West-best 18.6 points per game while registering 10.1 boards. The Mustangs also have a speedy scorer in Ariana Delgado, who is averaging 16.7 points an outing to go along with a Big West-leading 5.2 assists per contest.