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 is sponsored by CSULB Distinguished Alumnus Nelson Farris.
As Thanksgiving break came to a close, Long Beach State returned to the Walter Pyramid for another women’s basketball match up. After two consecutive losses on the road, the Beach were hoping to get a point in the win column and stay undefeated at home.
Long Beach State hosted the Pepperdine Waves in the Walter Pyramid for a Sunday afternoon game. The Beach won a scrappy battle against the Waves in a 68-61 final score.
“Really proud of these guys, they worked all week,” Head Coach Amy Wright said. “Just super proud of them coming out, executing the game plan, staying disciplined and continuing it through for all four quarters.”
Long Beach State was the team who got the game rolling. Although senior Pepperdine forward and center Megan Harkey tipped the ball to start, the Beach got possession and began their attack.
The home team couldn’t capitalize on this drive, as Pepperdine senior guard Malia Mastora got the first points of the game. However, Long Beach responded with two tough baskets from senior guard Lovely Sonnier and graduate forward Rachel Loobie.
The first quarter went back and forth between the teams and even with a 9-0 run from the Beach, they only led 17-15 after 10 minutes of play.
Pepperdine Head Coach Katie Faulkner showed a lot of passion throughout the game, but there was obvious discontent with the referees. Even with some disagreements, Long Beach State remained focused on the game that was being played on the floor.
“When it comes to the game, we’re not really focused about what’s happening on the sideline,” sophomore forward Jada Crawshaw said. “It’s really just what’s on the court. We just got to stay focused. That’s not what we’re here for. We’re here to win again.”
While Long Beach dealt with some missed passes and nine turnovers throughout the game, they remained strong on the rebound and transition side of things. The Beach had 53 total rebounds compared to Pepperdine’s 36.
“I thought our players did a good job of disrupting today, whether it was deflections, whether it was steals, whether it was pushing them outside of their comfort zone and sort of off the three point line or off the free throw line,” Wright said. “Still some things we can get better at on that end, but I thought we did a really good job of disrupting.”
The second quarter saw a change in energy for the Beach. Pepperdine graduate guard Ella Brubaker got 11 points in these ten minutes, contributing to her game-high 20 points. Long Beach only managed to score 15 points, which allowed the visitors to pull ahead 35-32 after the first half.
“In the second quarter, I think we started to play their pace,” Wright said. “We started to slow the ball down, and we were getting shots with, you know, eight seconds, six seconds left in the shot clock, which isn’t a bad thing, but that’s not how we play. It was just one of those moments where we weren’t disciplined in what we were trying to do defensively.”
Wright said Pepperdine has a certain style of play which tends to be slower than Long Beach’s. Although the Waves remained disciplined on offense, the home team was able to get back to their game in the second half.
Long Beach went on a 6-0 run to start the third quarter with buckets from freshman forward Mykelle Richards and senior guard Savannah Tucker. Richards and Tucker both finished with 15 points each. Crawshaw was another leading scorer for Long Beach State with 12 points.
“It’s for the team. Whatever I can contribute is what I need to do, and that’s my mental,” Crawshaw said.
One of the main adjustments for the Beach came with Pepperdine’s forwards. Harkey and senior Maggie Vick played defense by clogging the paint, something Long Beach wasn’t used to.
“We hadn’t seen that yet this year, so we talked about that adjustment,” Wright said. “We can still run our stuff even with her sitting in the paint. I think we still did a great job of going around her even though she was in the paint. So to me, that was the biggest adjustment.”
The score remained close in the third quarter, as well. Pepperdine freshman guard Chloe Sotell came in hot off the bench, which brought some energy to the visiting team. Sotell went on a 7-0 run to end the third quarter and put the Waves narrowly ahead 51-50.
The final quarter proved to be the difference maker. Pepperdine seemed to be getting visibly tired, but Long Beach was still fighting for the win.
“[There was] definitely a pace that we wanted to push on to Pepperdine, and we did that towards the end,” Richards said.
Sonnier set up a good play in the paint when she dumped a sneaky pass to freshman guard JaQuoia Jones-Brown for a basket. The Beach kept the energy up when a block from Tucker turned into a drive down the court and another basket from Jones-Brown. The team also made some defensive adjustments to try and throw Pepperdine off their game.
“We tried to switch up our defenses a little bit in terms of going man and zone,” Wright said. “I think that did mess with them, especially in the fourth quarter, did have a great effect.”
The home team ended up outscoring the visitors 18-10 in the final ten minutes, which allowed them to win the game in a 68-61 final score. With the battle going on every quarter, Wright said the win was a full team effort.
“We had a good rotation of eight players that came in,” Wright said. “Everybody contributed in their own way, whether it was with a rebound, a shot, whether it was a stop defensively. So I think that had a lot to do with it, and we were able to keep our pace with that type of rotation.”
With this win, the Beach are now 2-0 at home and 3-3 on the year. They open up Big West play against conference rival Cal State Fullerton. Long Beach hosts the Titans on Dec. 5 in the Walter Pyramid with tipoff set for 6 p.m.
“Whatever coaches give us, we got to take it on 100% and trust the game plan,” Crawshaw said.
