FULLERTON — The Long Beach State women’s basketball team cut a 22-point halftime deficit to four, but was unable to finish off a successful comeback, dropping a 76-67 decision against Big West conference rival Cal State Fullerton Thursday evening.
The 49ers (8-13, 4-4 Big West) opened up the second half with a 3-point field goal by senior guard Karina Figueroa and a steal by Melanie Lisnock.
Senior forward Ally Wade missed a layup, got her own rebound and put it in the basket on the second attempt to make it a 48-31 ballgame with 18:37 remaining.
After a pair of Titan baskets, the 49ers started to find their rhythm.
Lauren Sims connected on a 3-pointer and Wade scored on a left-handed layup during an out-of-bounds play.
Figueroa rebounded a Fullerton missed shot and made an outlet pass to freshman guard Jazmyne Porter, who found Wade underneath. Wade made two free-throws after being hacked by two Titans.
Porter capped a 12-0 run with back-to-back baskets, slicing the Titan lead to, 52-43, with 13:34 left to play and the LBSU bench and fans erupted into cheers.
“We’re short on numbers and she has stepped in beautifully,” head coach Jody Wynn said regarding Porter. “She’s got to make free throws but she played her heart out tonight.”
Porter scored a career-high 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting. The CSUF band’s distracting chants may have contributed to Porter’s 1-for-5 performance from the foul line.
The Beach pulled within four, 56-52, with 10:23 in the game when senior Brett Timmons scored on a jumper.
CSUF (10-12, 5-4 Big West) pushed its lead to as many as 13 points over the final 10 minutes to secure the victory.
“The girls gutted it out and showed an incredible amount of heart to cut the lead to four they could’ve just cashed it in and said ‘you know what, it’s not our night’ but they didn’t,” Wynn said. “They fought hard, they fought together and they supported one another and we were all in it together, in the end we ran out of gas a little bit.”
Figueroa, who said the first half was disappointing, led The Beach with 19 points. Sims finished with 14, while Wade added 12.
The ‘Niners shooting improved dramatically in the second half, as they made 15-of-33 field goals (45.5 percent) and went 5-for-10 (50.0 percent) from the line.
“We had more communication, we went 5-on-5 and we were sharing the ball, that’s what got us into the game,” Porter said
The 49ers got off to a fast start in the first half, as they jumped out to a 6-1 lead with 18:19 remaining in the first half. CSUF took the lead, 11-6, after making a 10-0 run.
Porter found Sims, who knocked down a 3-pointer to even the score at 14-all.
The Beach was held scoreless for over eight minutes as The Titans built a 23-point lead, 40-17, before senior post player Lindsey Beckner hit a jumper with 3:44 on the clock.
LBSU trailed CSUF 48-26 at halftime.
The ‘Niners completed just 28.6 percent (10-of-35) of its field goal attempts and 22.2 percent (2-of-9) of 3-point attempts in the first half, compared to the Titans’ 51.2 percent (22-of-43) from the floor and 42.9 percent (3-of-7) from beyond the arc.
“They played a great first half and we probably played the worst half of our season,” Wynn said.
CSUF had five players score in double figures, led by Megan Richardson’s game-high 20 points. Britt Peters, Lyndsey Grove and Ashley Richie each scored 11.