Long Beach State women’s basketball moves forward to 13 straight wins beating the University of California Santa Barbara 66-63 Thursday at the Walter Pyramid, after being down 22 points.
The Beach’s redshirt senior guard Ma’Qhi Berry finished the game with 21 points.
Berry said that her mindset going into the second half was that they would not lose the game.
They wanted to keep the streak alive as Berry also showed emotion toward the end of the game once LBSU took the lead.
The team now moves to an overall record of 20-7 and 15-2 in conference play. Berry was not the only scorer for The Beach.
LBSU redshirt senior guard Tori Harris started the game on a rough note, shooting 0-7 from the field in the first half.
“I trust my game, because the first half is not who I am as a player,” Harris said.
Her one point first half was forgotten once she entered the second half of the game.
Harris finished the game 5-15 with 17 points and 14 rebounds. The team started the game off with a cold start as it went down early on the scoreboard.
“Sometimes you make or miss shots, but it’s not about that. It’s about how you approach the game,” LBSU head coach Jeff Cammon said. “We have a standard that you know, we want to meet everyday and we weren’t meeting that.”
It was a sharp turning third quarter when LBSU went on a 23-8 run led by the front court.
Berry said that Cammon came into the locker room and said the game is not about “X’s and O’s,” while he kept the talk short and simple.
The comeback started with the defensive wins as LBSU finished the game with nine steals and 21 defensive rebounds.
This solidified the win, but not without struggles in the turnover column. LBSU had 13 turnovers in the game and Cammon said that it was unacceptable.
Cammon referenced some of the best teams in the nation and said that the reason they are so good is because they take care of the ball.
He also said that the reason he wanted the team to play teams like Baylor University and Arizona State University is because he wants his team to understand the pressure.
The Beach move forward with its win streak at 13 to face the California State University Northridge Matadors on Saturday in Northridge.