For the second time this season, the Long Beach State women’s basketball team staged a last-minute comeback only to fall short, dropping a 83-77 decision to USC, Thursday night at the Walter Pyramid.
Senior forward Ally Wade hit a 3-pointer to cut USC’s lead to 79-72 with 40 seconds remaining. Afterwards, The Beach (3-4) immediately put on the pressure.
After a Long Beach timeout, the Trojans’ Hailey Dunham made 1-of-2 free throws to push the USC lead back to eight.
Senior guard Lauren Sims scored on a layup, making it 80-74 USC with 00:21 remaining. Three seconds later, senior guard Karina Figueroa managed to get a steal and kicked it out to junior guard LaTorya Barbee.
Barbee converted on a three-point play, cutting the Women of Troy’s lead to, 80-77, with 18 seconds left in the game and that was the closest the ‘Niners would get.
With the clock dwindling down, LBSU was forced to foul and USC sank 3-of-4 free throw attempts in the final seconds to hold on for the win.
“Nobody expected us to come out and play hard and we did,” Barbee said. “We never gave up, it was a loss but we don’t feel too bad, we could’ve beat them.”
The ‘Niners were undersized in comparison to the Women of Troy and the numbers on the boards reflected that.
USC (4-3) outrebounded LBSU 50-37, with the Trojans dominating the offensive end 14-7.
“They killed us on the offensive boards,” first-year head coach Jody Wynn said. “You’re not going to win too many games when people double you up on the o-boards.”
Leading the way once again for The Beach was Figueroa, who led all scorers with 26 points. Figueroa duplicated her effort in Miami, dishing out a career-high tying 10 assists for the second time this season.
“We played our hearts out…I don’t know how else to put it,” Figueroa said.
In the first half, The Beach and the Women of Troy went basket for basket until USC went on a 9-0 run to lead 15-6 with 13:23 remaining.
The ‘Niners battled back and responded with a 8-0 run off their own, that ended on a four point play by Sims. Sims nailed a 3-pointer and drew a foul. The Beach pulled within one, 15-14, after Sims made the foul shot.
After trailing by 10 at halftime, The Beach witnessed the Trojans push their lead to as many as 20 points with 17:27 remaining in the second half.
LBSU received contributions from several players in the effort. Barbee scored a season-best 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field. Sims added 14, while Wade chipped in with nine. Junior forward Ashley Bookman pulled down nine rebounds.
The Women of Troy had five players reach double digits. Briana Gilbreath paced the Trojans with 21. Hailey Dunham scored 13, Aarika Hughes added 12, while Christina Marinacci and Ashley Corral had 11 and 10 points, respectively.
Despite the loss, Wynn said she was happy with the team’s performance against her alma mater.
“I’m not into moral victories but I’ll take that one,” Wynn said.