The562’s coverage of Long Beach State athletics for the 2022-23 season is sponsored by Marilyn Bohl.
The562’s coverage of Long Beach State Basketball is sponsored by CSULB Distinguished Alumnus Nelson Farris.
On the final day of the annual Beach Classic, the Beach fought hard but couldn’t stop Pacific down the stretch, blowing a 16-point lead and falling short against Pacific 90-86 at the Walter Pyramid Saturday Night.
“Gotta give credit to Pacific, they came in with a great game plan,” said LBSU head coach Amy Wright. “They played hard, they did a great job of spreading us out, and went to what was working for them, and we didn’t make the appropriate adjustments.”
Casey Valenti-Paea led the way for the Beach with a career-high 20 points and six rebounds in the losing effort.
“Having a coaching staff that believes in me and has given me the confidence to shoot the ball has been massive for me,” said Valenti-Paea. “I’ve been out two years with two ACLs, so it’s been nice to get back into the flow of things.”
It was a tale of two halves for the Beach, who started off the first half strong on both ends. The Beach were boosted by Cheyenne Givens’ 18 first-half points on 6-7 shooting. The Beach jumped out to a 47-39 lead at the end of the first half, riding Givens’ hot hand, quality buckets in the paint, and a 10-0 run by the Beach midway through the second quarter.
However, the second half saw a much different story on both ends for the Beach. After jumping out of the locker with an 8-0 run to give the Beach a 16-point lead with 8:48 left in the third quarter, Pacific began its rally back, cutting the lead to just six at the end of the third quarter. This was heavily influenced by the Tigers switching to a zone defense, an adjustment that stifled the Beach underneath the rim. This defense, combined with an aggressive Pacific offense, resulted in the Beach being outscored 48-14 in the paint in the second half.
“You can’t give up that many paint points in one half,” said Wright. “We’re gonna be undersized all year, and we’re gonna need to explore different schemes, whether it’s doubling, more ball pressure. We’ve had success against teams with bigs, so we just need to reevaluate, watch the film, and get better in that field.”
Constantly pressuring the Beach on both ends, Pacific used a 9-2 run to take a 72-71 lead with 7:28 remaining in the fourth quarter.
“We should’ve moved the ball more,” said Valenti-Paea of the Beach’s second half struggles. We made more than a couple of dribbles and it wasn’t working out for us. Get to our reversal, get to our screens faster, things will become open for us.”
It was a back-and-forth affair the rest of the game, with both teams trading buckets down the stretch. However, Cecilia Holmberg’s layup gave Pacific an 82-80 lead that they would not relinquish the rest of the way. Long Beach State fought to the end, lifted by a couple of threes by Patricia Chung including one with 6.4 seconds to make it an 88-86 game. However, Holmberg sank two free throws to put the game on ice, and Pacific left the Pyramid victorious 90-86.
Despite the loss, Wright has full confidence that her squad will improve and learn from their mistakes.
“We definitely weren’t the best tonight in terms of Long Beach State Women’s Basketball,” said Wright. “But what these women have shown me is that once we harp on something and try to correct it, they don’t like to lose. So I know they’re gonna come back wanting to learn, wanting to play better, and wanting all 12 players to collectively agree that we gotta play hard on both ends together.”
The Beach will look to bounce back on Tuesday when they host San Francisco.
