The562’s coverage of Long Beach State athletics for the 2024-25 season is sponsored by Marilyn Bohl.
The562’s coverage of Long Beach State Basketball is sponsored by CSULB Distinguished Alumnus Nelson Farris.
The Long Beach State women’s basketball team’s final home game of the season in the Walter Pyramid on Thursday night was certainly one to forget. The Beach trailed for almost the entirety of the game against visiting UC San Diego and were outclassed in a lopsided 82-51 loss.
Long Beach State (15-12, 11-8) will look to bounce back on Saturday when they conclude their regular season schedule at Cal Poly before heading to Nevada for the Big West tournament.
“Myself and my staff thought we had a good game plan. We did not,” said LBSU coach Amy Wright. “We thought we had ways to slow them down and create a little bit of havoc and chaos, but we were wrong. We were wrong and we need to do better for this team and we will do that against Cal Poly on Saturday going into the tournament.”
The Beach had its only lead of the game after a 4-0 run to open the first quarter, one that was soon cut by the lights-out shooting of UC San Diego. Parker Montgomery and Sabrina Ma knocked down back-to-back threes to take the lead for the Tritons, who were 3/6 from behind the arc in the first quarter.
UC San Diego kept up its shooting as the game went on, firing 50% from three-point range in the first half and 38% for the game. The Tritons finished the game 30/52 from the field, an efficient 48% shooting.
“It was hard to get our zone since we weren’t closing out on shooters. It’s hard to play zone when they’re hot,” Wright said. “And in terms of pressure, we did start to trap a little bit but they were able to find their way out of traps and find the open shooter. It was an adjustment that wasn’t working so towards the end we stuck to switching man just trying to keep them in front and contest.”
Meanwhile, LBSU shot the ball 28% from the field, going just 19/67. The Beach turned the ball over 15 times to UC San Diego’s 11 but gave up 21 points from turnovers while scoring just eight points off of takeaways.
“Obviously when you’re not putting the ball in the basket, it’s difficult,” Wright said. “I think we missed our first nine shots that were normal shots that we shoot in practice. At that point I wasn’t concerned, they just weren’t falling. Unfortunately, we have a tendency as a team to get deflated when the balls are not going in the basket.”
The Tritons led by 16 points at the half and grew a lead of 23 in the third quarter after another Montgomery three-pointer. UC San Diego finished the game on a 17-point scoring run in the fourth quarter to finish the game with its biggest lead of 31 points.
Sumayah Sugapong led the way for the Tritons with a double-double and game-highs of 18 points and nine assists. Kayanna Spriggs also had a double-double with 13 points and a game-high 10 rebounds. Sabrina Ma chipped in 17 points while Parker Montgomery had 14.
Long Beach State was without leading scorer Savannah Tucker for the entire second half for what Wright says was a coach’s decision. Tucker chipped in seven points in 20 minutes, while Jada Crawshaw had a team-high 16 and Patricia Chung had 10. JaQuoia Jones-Brown had a team-high eight rebounds.
“I feel like since (Tucker) wasn’t able to fill the role that she normally does, I had to take over. Even though it may not seem like I did a lot, I did a lot for my teammates, whether that was rebounding, helping help-side, and scrambling, just having their back and them having mine.”
Long Beach State’s regular season finale is at Cal Poly on Saturday at 2pm.
