With the Big West Championship victory and celebration now behind them, the No.15 Long Beach State women’s basketball gears up to take on No. 2 Oregon State in the NCAA Tournament.
The 49ers finished the regular season 23-10, making it the third straight year the Beach picks up 20 plus wins.
The Beavers finished the season 29-4, becoming the PAC-12 regular season champs and finished second place in the PAC-12 Tournament.
The question on everyone’s mind is whether or not the 49ers will pull off an upset over the Beavers. After all, LBSU was once a dominant basketball program in the 1980s, when they went to the NCAA Tournament for 10-straight seasons stretching from 1982 to 1992. Within that stretch, the 49ers had two Final Four appearances and had an NCAA Tournament record of 18-11.
The short answer, however, is no. But the 49ers’ do have a slim chance of winning.
There are a few reasons as to why the 49ers won’t defeat the Beavers.
One of those reasons is that Oregon State ranks seventh in the nation in scoring defense. On the season, they have held opponents to score 54.1 points per game.
LBSU isn’t even in the top 50 in scoring defense, but did finish third in the Big West Conference allowing 63.2 points per game.
Oregon State also have great perimeter defense, ranking 18th in the nation in three-point percentage with teams only shooting an average of 27.7 percent from behind the arc.
The 49ers are known to be one of the best three-point shooting teams in the nation, being ranked 16th in three-point attempts with 801, 17th in makes with 261 and also 31st in threes made per game with 7.9.
But the Beavers aren’t too shabby either, as they are ranked 11th in three-point percentage shooting 37.8 percent.
So, this game could be decided from who wins the three-point battle.
A strong argument that can be made for the LBSU pulling off an upset is that earlier in the season, the 49ers beat No. 22 University of Southern Florida on Dec. 16, 2016, defeating them 73-68.