It wasn’t the week that Long Beach State women’s basketball coach Jeff Cammon was hoping for. His team dropped their home opener to Cal Baptist by two points on Friday, then got blown out by USC on Sunday afternoon, falling 86-50.
“It was a tough one tonight,” said Cammon after the loss to the Trojans. “It’s good for this young group to play a higher caliber team–we saw a lot of good things tonight but a lot of things we need to work on.”
The list of things to work on spans the length of the box score. The first half in particular was brutal, with USC outscoring Long Beach 51-22, outrebounding them by double, and allowing just one Long Beach assist. The team ended up finishing with six assists and 24 turnovers.
“Our girls were really excited and ready to take on the challenge,” said Cammon. “I thought they tried to do it on their own a little bit.”
Shanaijah Davison had a career-high 34 points against Cal Baptist, but spent half of the game against USC on the bench. Her coming out party was against the Trojans last year when she dropped 29, but she was held to 0-for-7 shooting this year, finishing with one point.
“She struggled early offensively,” said Cammon. “This is basketball, you’re going to have some tough nights.”
Cammon did say he thought his team followed their scouting report on defense much better in the second half and said he was pleased with the way they competed on the boards in the second half. The Trojans outrebounded Long Beach 50-24 in the game, including grabbing 20 offensive boards.
Long Beach was led by 12 points apiece from Justina King and Sydney Bordonaro. USC got 21 points from Minyon Moore and 19 from Aliyah Mazyck.
Long Beach State will continue its Pac-12 nonleague schedule, playing the second of four opponents this Friday when they visit Utah.
