Sports, Women's Basketball

Poor shooting in 2nd half hurts 49er women

Box score

The Long Beach State 49ers were unable to contain visitng UC Riverside in the second half as they dropped Friday’s women’s basketball contest, 64-48.

UCR senior Kemie Nkele stole the show at the Walter Pyramid, scoring a game-high 26 points and collecting eight rebounds. Nkele shot 11-of-19 from the field and 50 percent from 3-point range. She was also solid on defense, adding three blocks and a steal for the Highlanders.

Nkele’s teammate, forward Roney Friend, scored 11 points in the second half with a lot of easy looks in the paint.

LBSU senior guard Lynea Williams had a team-high 16 points, despite shooting just 4-of-13 from the field. Williams drove to the basket throughout the first half, but was contained by Riverside in the second half.

Last week’s Big West Conference Player of the Week, Lauren Sims, wasn’t able to get anything going — scoring only seven points for the 49ers.

“They were guarding Lauren tight … We didn’t get her enough touches when she was able to get open,” LBSU head coach Mary Hegarty said.

Sims said they knew the Highlanders would guard her closely. The 49ers (7-18, 3-9 Big West Conference) were unable to use the extra pressure on Sims to exploit the Riverside defense.

A 21-1 run by the Highlanders (16-9, 11-1 Big West) put the 49ers down by 20 with six minutes to go in the game; they were never able to recover. Their response to runs by opposing teams had been key to their recent success.

LBSU held tight with UC Riverside throughout the first half, ending the period down by only two.

“It was like night and day. The defense, rebounding; It was like two different games,” Sims said. The 49ers shot 40 percent in the first half but only 13.3 in the second.

The 49ers were coming off their first back-to-back wins of the season.

“We had a very high confidence level in the first half, but we just lost it in the second half,” Hegarty said. “We splintered when things got tough.”

Hegarty added it was a very disappointing second half for her team coming off the back-to-back wins.

LBSU is currently seventh in the Big West with only three games to go in the regular season. The top eight teams in the conference make the tournament at the end of the season.

“We hold our destiny is our own hands, which is good,” Hegarty said.

Long Beach will look to play a stronger second half next Thursday at UC Irvine. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published.

Daily 49er newsletter

Instagram