The Long Beach State women’s basketball team won an intense game against UC San Diego 54-50, at Recreation, Intramural and Athletic Complex on Friday night.
Following their win against Cal State Fullerton on Jan. 9 it was the first time in three weeks the Beach played. This was also UC San Diego’s first time playing Division I.
San Diego came out strong leading 13-8 by the end of the first quarter. By the second quarter the Beach graveled back, upping their defense and scoring from turnovers. By the end of the first half the game was close with San Diego leading 28-27.
During the halftime break, Steve Quis from ESPN interviewed Dan Butterly, the new Big West Conference commissioner. After 2021-22 the Big West Conference’s streaming subscription with ESPN will expire, according to Butterly .
“We are excited for a number of things we are doing behind the scenes,” said Butterly. “As we come out of this pandemic we want to come out a much stronger Big West Conference.”
When the teams returned for the third quarter, San Diego did not back down scoring two points within the first 12 seconds but by the end of the third quarter Long Beach was leading 43-39.
It was an intense fourth quarter within the first minute the game was tied up 43-43. With less than 40 seconds left, Jasmin Hardy saved the game with a three pointer followed by two points from Justina King and the final point from Joseph Myrrah.
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The scoring was led by juniors King and Hardy followed by freshmen Patricia Chung each scoring 15 points each. In conference the beach is currently leading 7-0 and overall 8-1.
Long Beach is up for a rematch against UC San Diego Jan. 30 at 5 p.m. Stream it live at bigwest.org.