Health & Fitness
Long Beach Meets Santa Barbara in Finals Tonight
Men's team struggles early, pulls away in second half to punch its ticket to the championship game, while the women's team holds off top-seeded Cal Poly to earn its place in the WCC final game.
Saturday‘s championship double-header for the Big West Conference title will boast the men's and women's Long Beach State basketball teams.
The double entry in tonight's finals at Honda Center in Anaheim came after each team had challenges. The men’s team started out slowly, but was able to pull away in the second half to defeat UC Irvine 68-57 to punch its ticket to the Championship game of the Big West tournament.
Long Beach will face arch nemesis UC Santa Barbara for all the marbles. Tip off time is 7pm.
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Long Beach State is 4-6 all-time in Big West Tournament championship games, with wins in 1977, 1993, 1995, and 2007. The 49ers lost the last two championship games to Santa Barbara.
Friday night, Irvine jumped to a 9-0 lead, which prompted Long Beach head coach Dan Monson to insert substitutes only two minutes into the game--including co-team captain Edis Dervisevic, who dished out five assists in the game.
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"I see my teammates were struggling,” Dervisevic said. “I wanted to do whatever I can to get the flow going again.”
Casper Ware, a Gahr High grad, single-handedly brought the Beach back, scoring the next eight points to close the gap to 8-11. James Ennis then hit a 3-pointer to tie
the game at 11-11. Neither team could get any type of scoring run, as Irvine went into halftime with a 28-27 lead.
Monson summarized the win with a golf analogy. “It’s like hitting the ball everywhere, and then sinking a 40-foot putt to save par.”
Long Beach imposed the press in the second half, which helped the Beach to get a lead as high as 10 points.
The Cinderella tournament run continues for Long Beach's women’s team, as they upset top-seeded Cal Poly 51-48 earlier Friday. The 49er women will face 6th seeded UC Santa Barbara for the Big West Tournament title--and a berth to the NCAA tournament.
Both women's teams shot no better than 20 percent in the first half.
Trailing 14-6, Long Beach would claw back, culminating with a Hallie Meneses 3-pointer to close out the first half to trail 19-13.
Cal Poly couldn’t convert its free throws down the stretch as Long Beach held on to steal a 51-48 win with two free throws of its own by Chantel Dooley.
“The win showed how much we have grown,” Associate Head Coach Derek Wynn said, “especially with all the obstacles (injuries) that we had to go through all year.”