With five experienced seniors the Long Beach State women’s basketball team is primed to win the Big West Tournament.
The 49ers will have the second seed in the tourney after finishing the season 21-10 and 12-4 Big West play.
Last season, the team fell to Hawai’i in the semifinals. This season, LBSU defeated every team in the conference once — which included sweeping UC Davis, who received the first seed in the tournament.
One of the reasons the team improved was due to the play from its five seniors: Raven Benton, Anna Kim, Madison Montgomery, Gigi Hascheff and Jewelyn Sawyer.
Three of the five seniors took home regular season awards with Benton winning Best Sixth Woman of the Year, Sawyer winning her second straight Defensive Player of the Year and Kim winning Best Hustle Player of the Year.
Kim also received a spot in the First All-Big West Women’s Basketball Team, while Benton got into the Second All-Big West team; both Montgomery and Sawyer received honorable mentions.
Last year, the 49ers had one lone senior in Chantel Dooley, and did not play in the Big West Tournament due to injury. Her absence paved the way for the juniors and sophomores on the team to gain tournament experience. Now, those second- and third-year players are one year older and hungry for a title.
Their improvement on court comes from their improved shooting over last season. Kim, Montgomery and Sawyer all saw increases in shooting percentage and points per game.
All three shot over 40 percent from the field in the regular season. Kim and Montgomery are also averaging 10 points a game, whereas last year both averaged less than nine.
Kim has also seen a huge improvement as a floor general. Her assist total bumped up from 72 total assists last season to 111 assists this season. Her three-point shooting percentage also rose from 34.9 percent to 40.3 percent, which is third in Big West Conference.
One downside this season is the performance by Benton. Her point total decreased this season from 13.5 points per game to 11, but still averages the most points in the team. Some of her loss in performance comes from fighting injury throughout the season.
Benton is finally getting healthy, going into the tournament on fire by scoring the game-highs in the last two games of the season with 13 points against CSUN on March 2 and 19 points against Hawai’i on March 4. Her shooting percentage also saw a little bump over last season, shooting 40.7 percent from the field, a one percent improvement.
Another major difference between last season and this season is the fact that the 49ers did not get swept by any team in conference.
Instead, the 49ers swept the current number one seed in the tourney, UC Davis. The Aggies recorded only two Big West Conference losses, both coming from LBSU.
The 49ers also swept UC Riverside, who was the first seeded team in last year’s tournament. The Highlanders hold the fifth seed in this year’s tournament.
The team that LBSU should be worried about is CSUN, a force to be reckoned with in the tournament as they garnered the third seed.
The Matadors’ sophomore Channon Fluker was also named Big West Player of the Year.
Fluker led the Big West in points, averaging 17.4 per game, led the division in rebounds with 12 a game and was third in field goal percentage, shooting 53.2 percent.
CSUN also led the division in rebounds per game with 44.4, blocks per game with 4.4, was third in assists per game with 15.3 and fourth in points per game with 66.3.
The Matadors’ Achilles heel is their inability to steal the ball and force turnovers. They average 4.7 steals a game making it last in the division and being second in turnovers a game with 16.6.
Since the 49ers hold the second seed, they will be playing against the highest-seeded team that wins over the course of the first two rounds – meaning that, if CSUN wins, it’s a quarterfinal game they will play against CSULB in the semifinals.
If this happens, the 49ers are more than capable of winning, although it will be a tough-earned victory.
From there, the 49ers will head to the Big West Tournament Final where they will play against the Aggies.
With the first two meet ups ending with a LBSU victory, this game will end with the same result.
The 49ers will win the title, but it will be a tough road and well deserved when they hoist the trophy in the air. The Big West Title will grant them a spot into the NCAA Tournament, which will be the first appearance since 1992.