The562’s coverage of Long Beach State athletics for the 2022-23 season is sponsored by Marilyn Bohl.
Back on January 7, Long Beach State was a .500 basketball team. They’d just lost to conference rivals UC Irvine at home, dropping their record to an even 7-7, with a 2-2 record against Big West teams.
Less than four weeks later, the Beach are looking anything but average. After Thursday night’s 65-53 win over Cal State Fullerton, Long Beach (14-7, 9-2 Big West) has now won 7 in a row heading into Saturday’s massive rematch against Irvine.
“We just have a great group of young ladies, and the results are obviously what people look at, but we try to focus on the process,” said Beach head coach Jeff Cammon after the win. “That’s the standard. It’s great that we’re winning, but it’s about growing and getting better.”
Senior Tori Harris led the Beach with 16 points on Thursday night, while classmates Malia Bambrick and Ma’Qhi Berry joined her in double figures with 11 points apiece. Berry also set a new season high with 8 assists, falling just one shy of her career high at the Beach.
Bambrick had 9 of her points in the first half, and unfortunately left the game with an apparent leg injury in the fourth quarter. Coach Cammon did not have an immediate update on her status going forward.
Kristyna Jeskeova continued her hard work in anchoring the Beach defensively. KJ scored 8 points and added a team-high 13 rebounds and 5 steals. LBSU had 13 steals as a team, part of 18 forced turnovers against the Titans. Jeskeova said she likes the personality of this year’s team and that could be the key for a deeper tournament run in March.
“I feel like first of all, we like to share the ball much more than last year,” Jeskeova said. “We had 15 assists tonight, which obviously could be higher, but just that speaks about how we play. Also, we stay hungry and humble, which is what we have to continue to do in order to win this league.”
LBSU led 18-15 after the opening quarter and led by as many as 8 in the first half before hitting a dry spell in the second quarter. The Beach failed to score over the final 4:15 of the first half, leading just 31-27 at the break. That drought extended about two minutes into the third quarter, but LBSU quickly kicked its offense into gear, scoring six in a row to take a 37-27 lead.
That lead swelled to as many as 17 early in the fourth, and LBSU was able to cruise down the stretch against a shorthanded Titans team. Fullerton got a game-high 18 points from Fujika Nimmo, but the bench was thin for the visitors. The bench played just over 7 minutes combined for the Titans as their starting five stayed in for the majority of the night against LBSU’s fast-paced defense.
Now the attention turns back to UC Irvine, who will host the Beach on Saturday at 1 p.m. in the Black & Blue Rivalry. UCI sits atop the Big West with a 9-1 conference mark, including the head-to-head win over Long Beach. Saturday’s game will go a long way in determining the race for the regular season championship and the top seed in the Big West Tournament.
“I just think we have to be us,” said Cammon on the keys to Saturday’s matchup. “Go and be hungry and humble, like KJ was saying, and just be ready to compete. They're a tough physical team, they're well coached, and they're gonna bring it from beginning to end, and we just have to be ready to compete for 40 minutes. I think we're a better team than we were the last time we played, and it's gonna be a great game. All games are important, but this is obviously going towards our goal. It's gonna be a fun, competitive game. So we're excited.”
