The Long Beach State women’s basketball survived a late fourth quarter run defeating Pacific 66-58 Wednesday in the Walter Pyramid.
The Tigers (3-5) had 17 turnovers in the game and held an early lead in the first quarter until the 49ers (5-4) tied the game at the 4:55 mark with eight points each. From that point on, LBSU never let Pacific regain the lead.
The Tigers made a late 9-3 fourth quarter run at the 3:50 mark, but it wasn’t enough.
“We made a push,” Pacific head coach Bradley Davis said. “But we dug ourselves into big a hole.”
The 49ers, on the other hand, made some mistakes along the way as they committed 15 turnovers, including five in the fourth quarter.
“Once we got a little bit poised and remained patient, understood time and score, we got good possessions when we needed to down the stretch,” 49ers head coach Jody Wynn said. “For a while there, we didn’t get good possessions because we were coughing up the ball too much.”
The 49ers still ended up scoring 13 points in the fourth, which was enough to hold off the 16 points that the Tigers put up.
Junior guard Cece Wilson had a big night setting a career-high in points with 20 for the game. The 5-foot 8-inch player was on fire from behind the arc, making five out six three-pointers in the game.
“I don’t know, I just felt good tonight,” Wilson said. “I don’t know what to say. [I] just kind of let go and shot the ball.”
Wilson wasn’t the only 49er who had a good night, as senior forward Madison Montgomery posted 13 points, which included a hot start of six points in the first quarter.
“Maddy was very productive,” Wynn said. “We isolated her and our team did a nice job of getting her the ball.”
The 49ers’ shooting performance was also key to their victory. LBSU shot 43.4 percent from the field and went nine of 21 from behind the arc.
As for the Tigers, they shot 37 percent from the field and went six of 22 in three pointers.
The 49ers were without star senior guard Raven Benton, who was out for an injury. Coach Wynn did not specify on her injury other than that she is currently “day to day.”
Despite Benton’s absence, the 49ers saw the return of senior point guard Anna Kim after she missed two games due to a concussion she suffered in a game against USC on Nov. 27.
Kim neither started nor scored, but did receive valuable minutes and contributed two rebounds and an assist to the 49ers’ victory.
After losing four games in a row, the 49ers have now won back-to-back games and Wynn is happy for the team.
“I’m just really proud of our bench,” she said. “Everyone contributed today. So, it was nice to be able to see Martina [McCowan], it was nice to be able to see Katie [Webster], other kids step up and perform. I think that having Anna and Raven out these past two games in Arizona gave Tyla [Turner] some opportunity and experience and Gigi [Hascheff] some more experience with just handling the ball under pressure. So hopefully we can build on that.”
The 49ers head back on the road as they travel to face Loyola Marymount University at Gersten Pavilion at 2 p.m. Saturday.