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.
A balanced attack and just enough defense down the stretch helped Long Beach State women’s basketball hold on for an 81-79 victory over visiting San Francisco on Saturday at Walter Pyramid.
The Beach had six players score in double digits and the two most impactful ones were Jada Crawshaw and Davai Matthews off the bench. The freshman Crawshaw scored a career-high 12 points to go with seven rebounds, two steals and a block. The sophomore Matthews chipped in a career-high 10 points to go with a team-high eight rebounds and five assists.
LBSU led by as many as 19 points in the first half, but San Francisco outscored the Beach 46-31 in the second half by feeding their best players in the post like Debora Dos Santos. She is averaging a double-double this season, and did so again with 13 points and 15 rebounds, but both Crawshaw and Matthews made key defensive plays late against Dos Santos to secure the victory.
“These two had to guard Santos the entire game,” LBSU first-year coach Amy Wright said of her stars off the bench. “When you’re going well on one end, it feeds the other end… We’re asking (Crawshaw) a freshman from Australia to guard the post, guard the guards, be at the top of our zone, top of our press… so by this time next year Jada will be one of our strongest leaders.”
LBSU starters Savannah Tucker (17 points), Patricia Chung (12 points), Casey Valenti-Paea (12 points) and Sydney Woodley (11 points, four steals) were the other players in double figures. The Beach had 16 assists on 27-for-62 shooting.
“It’s not necessarily the X’s and O’s because we have talented players who are being allowed to play,” Wright said of the balanced attack. “Six players in double figures, that’s the first time that’s happened this year. That’s ultimately the goal because it’s really hard to guard.”
LBSU never trailed in the game, and opened up a 14-point lead in the first quarter before San Francisco went to to the paint. The Dons scored 10 of their first 16 points in the paint and cut the lead to 20-16 headed to the second quarter. San Francisco finished with 36 points in the paint and 22 second-chance points.
The Beach came alive in the second quarter while outscoring San Francisco 30-17 and building a 50–33 halftime lead. LBSU made nine of its 16 field goal attempts in the quarter, and five of those came from behind the 3-point arc.
“The pace of our game and all of us being on the same page really helped us convert buckets,” Crawshaw said.
After a relatively even third quarter, Dos Santos sparked a 9-0 run with about seven minutes left in the game, and eventually San Francisco pulled even, 77-77.
With about three minutes left, the two teams traded turnovers and it seemed like Crawshaw and Matthews were involved in everything. Wright even said that she wanted Matthews involved specifically because of her distribution.
“I was looking for my teammates first because I trust them and know they can knock down shots,” Matthews said. “We have to work together no matter what.”
LBSU only led by two points with a minute left when Matthews made a nice post move for the layup and a 81-77 lead.
Dos Santos responded with a bucket of her own at the other end, and after LBSU missed a shot to clinch it, Dos Santos had a look in the final seconds to tie the game. However, Matthews was there to alter the shot that bounced off the front rim as the final buzzer sounded.
“My teammates trusted me to not foul in that moment,” Matthews said.
LBSU (5-4) hosts No. 6 USC on Thursday in its last game before Big West Conference action starts. Tip-off is scheduled for 2 p.m.
Wright said she’s taking it slow with her team’s growth in a brand new system.
“You don’t want to peak right now,” she said. “We’re still learning, we’re all going through this together. That’s the fun thing. Now we have this experience we can work on. This is the skeleton, hopefully we will have the body on come March.”
