The562’s coverage of Long Beach State athletics for the 2023-24 season is sponsored by Marilyn Bohl.
The562’s coverage of Long Beach State basketball for the 2023-24 season is sponsored by Nelson Farris.
It was a night to forget for the Long Beach State women’s basketball team, as they shot just 21.6% from the field and couldn’t get timely stops defensively, en route to a 45-30 loss to UC San Diego at the Walter Pyramid Thursday.
The Beach were aggressive all night long, but simply couldn’t get shots to fall both around the rim and from long distance. The Beach were a mere 1-17 from the three-point line and struggled to combat UCSD’s fierce paint protection. The Beach also struggled taking care of the ball, recording 29 turnovers (against just 30 points), many of which were unforced errors such as travels and unnecessary offensive fouls.
“Give credit to San Diego, they had a solid game plan coming in,” said LBSU coach Amy Wright. “They did a good job protecting the ball inside and pounding it on the other end. But we need to have better decision-making on the offensive end, and simply more accurate shots overall.“
The first half was neck and neck with both teams struggling offensively, shooting just under 30% from the field. However, the game began to tip in UCSD’s favor in the third quarter, after a three from Izzy Forsyth and an ensuing layup gave UCSD a 33-26 lead to close out the quarter.
“We took risks on defense when they didn’t have to,” said Wright. “We’re reaching, we’re trying to shoot gaps, we’re not an up line, on the line defensive team, and yet we continue to do that and get beat.”
While UCSD continued to hit timely shots, the Beach stalled offensively in the 4th quarter, going 0-13 from the field and not scoring a single point until two free throws from Patricia Chung with 11 seconds left in the game.
One particular issue the Beach struggled with offensively was not taking advantage of turnovers on the defensive end. Despite the Beach forcing 25 turnovers from UCSD, they scored only 8 points off those turnovers, half of the 16 UCSD scored off turnovers. Following a UCSD turnover, The Beach often missed simple fast break layups along with wide-open jump shots and fadeaways, as shots simply couldn’t fall in the 4th quarter.
“It’s hard to overcome going 0 for 13 when half of our shots were layups,” said Wright. “Give UCSD credit, they’re a big and long team and did a good job packing the paint. I think it’s between the ears for us in terms of our offense. We simply have to be better.”
Despite the disappointing loss, Wright continues to stress hard work and discipline on both ends as the team moves forward.
“We’re gonna continue to work, we’re gonna continue to try and put these young women in situations where they can be successful and just hopefully they absorb what we’re trying to teach them,” said Wright.
The Beach will look to get back on track Saturday against UCSB.
