The Long Beach State women’s basketball team played a praiseworthy game Monday night, yet still suffered a 80-71 loss to the University of California at the Walter Pyramid.
After cutting Cal’s 13-point and largest lead of the game down to five with 52 seconds remaining in the second half, The Beach watched the Golden Bears sink six free throws as 30 seconds elapsed off the game clock, to secure the victory.
“Even though we were undersized and disadvantaged, we still did everything that we could to try and win,” sophomore forward Tipesa Moorer said.
Cal made the first basket of the second half to go up by 12. However, The Beach was able to quickly cut the Golden Bears lead to seven after Karina Figueroa made a pair of free throws and Lauren Sims found Ally Wade in the corner for a 3-pointer.
Following a Golden Bears basket, and two missed free throws by Cal’s 6-foot-3 forward Talia Caldwell, LBSU would further reduce Cal’s lead to six, 40-34, when junior guard Melanie Lisnock drained a 3-pointer with 17:53 remaining.
Cal had an answer for every LBSU bucket, as the visiting Golden Bears were able to push their lead to double digits with 8:15 left to play. Despite a noteworthy effort by The Beach to cut the deficit, the Bears maintained their lead for the duration of the contest to hold on for the win.
“They’re a talented team,” head coach Jody Wynn said. “They’re big and strong, and their guards are very quick to the ball.”
With Cal boasting four players over 6-foot-2 inches on its roster, the Bears took advantage of their height and did some damage down low. Cal scored 36 points in the paint compared to LBSU’s 26.
Most of those points came in the first half, as the Golden Bears scored 20 points in the paint, including six layups, to The Beach’s eight points and one layup.
“They were extremely tall and we had a small lineup,” junior guard Melanie Lisnock said.
Although The Beach was outrebounded by the Bears, 38-32, they matched their opponent on the defensive end with 23 rebounds.
The Beach (4-8) and the Bears (5-4) also shot the same from the field at 42.9 percent for the contest, with the ‘Niners making 24-of-56 total field goals, including 5-for-18 from 3-point range.
Long Beach State trailed Cal, 36-26, at halftime.
Wynn said the team shot an abundance of free throws in the walk through before the game, and it paid off.
The 49ers shot their best game of the season from the free-throw line, an astounding 94.7 percent on 18-of-19 shooting.
“We’ve got to concentrate on making those because they’re free points,” Wynn said.
The Beach and the Golden Bears each had four players score in double figures.
Figueroa led all scorers with 24 points on 8-for-17 shooting, and a perfect 7-of-7 from the charity stripe.
Lisnock and Moorer each scored career highs. Lisnock contributed with 17 points in the loss, while Moorer and Sims added 10 points apiece.
Sims, who is 16th in the nation in 3-point field goal percentage at 50.8 percent, shot 4-for-14 from the field including 0-for-5 from beyond the arc.
Cal was paced by the freshman trio of Layshia Clarendon, DeNesha Stallworth and Caldwell, who accounted for 50 of the Bears total points and combined for 21 rebounds.
Clarendon led the Golden Bears with 21 points, Stallworth finished with 19 and Caldwell contributed with 10. Natasha Vital also scored 17 points in the win for the Bears.
Long Beach State finished the preseason 4-8, however they have been competitive in several losses. Five of the eight losses were by less than 10 points, with three by a narrow six points.
“We battled, we hung tough, we might’ve lost some games but I think our kids still believe we can win,” Wynn said. “If we didn’t schedule these people we would’ve never known if we could play with them.”
The Beach returns to the Walter Pyramid on Saturday, Jan. 2 for a matchup against UC Riverside to kick off Big West Conference action. Tip-off is scheduled for 4 p.m.