The 49ers new and fab freshman 5-10 Raven Benton handles the pressure of LMU’s 6-1 junior Emily Ben-Jumbo in the Beach’s home opening win over the Lions. Photo by John Fajardo

If you looked at Wikipedia for an article on freshmen basketball players the entry would be full of ifs and buts. If they burst on to the scene the fans get excited and the future is rosy. If they stumble, you are asked to have patience. LBSU has some of both.

Saturday night the hoop ladies of Long Beach (2-2) got their crowd smiling when freshman Raven Benton led the Niners with a team-best 16 points and 10 rebounds–her first career double-double. Result, the Beach won their second straight game, 76-66 over Loyola Marymount, and did so before a nice crowd of 1,723. Raven is an import from the state of Washington.

The men on Sunday morning played a dismal brand of breakfast ball losing to Kansas State 52-38 loss in the final game of the Puerto Rico-Tipoff. The super rookie is red shirt freshmen Brandon Jones, an import from the state of Texas, who followed up his best game (a team high 19 points, 8-11, testing of VCU) with his worst game, 0-5 from the floor, 0-5 from the foul line, in a team high 31 minutes of play.

Benton’s hustle and flow inspired the Beach gals for a team that saw four players hit double figures to even its overall record to 2-2 and break a 12-game losing streak in its all-time series with LMU. The LBSU women shot 47.1% from the field and were even better from behind the arc where it made 57.1% of its attempts. Bonus pluses. The Niners picked the Lions pockets for 13 steals and forced 24 LMU turnovers.

Next up this weekend are two Pyramid games, Pepperdine on Saturday and Omaha on Sunday with both games scheduled for a 2PM start.

For the gents, the positives were that the Beach boys forced Kansas State into 23 turnovers, but the Wildcats orchestrated a suffocating defense that caused a 20-minute Niner scoring funk. Mike Caffey hit two three-pointers early as part of a game-high 13 points but the scoring balance from Friday night was absent. Jones and company worked their way home on Sunday night over-nighting in Miami for reasons of airline schedules.

Monson and team (1-6) head on the road once again this Saturday traveling to Seattle, Washington to face the Huskies. The game will tip at 3:30 p.m. for a broadcast on the Pac-12 Network.

DUST BUSTING—MLB slugger Manny Ramirez still hasn’t given up on returning to the bigs. If that never happens he still has his son, Manny Ramirez Jr., ready the 18-year-old Ramirez Jr., a 6-foot-4 first baseman, is headed to the University of San Francisco. USF head coach Nino Giarratano told local media, “He is a very talented hitter, has a chance to hit in the middle of our line-up, and provide us with a great approach as a hitter and defensive first baseman. The best part of Manny is how he handles himself as a person–he is very humble, driven, and competitive.”

Long Beach State junior Chris Enriquez wrapped up the 2013 cross country season at the NCAA Division I Championships in Terre Haute, Ind., Saturday morning. Enriquez was the first 49er in over 25 years to qualify for the NCAA Cross Country Championships. In cold, windy and muddy conditions, (sort of like Long Beach this weekend) Enriquez moved up one spot over the final two kilometers of the 10K course to place 234th with a time of 32:58.9.

Last weekend, Enriquez ran a lifetime-best 29:55 in the 10K at the NCAA West Regional in Sacramento. He earned all-region honors with a 10th-place showing. Enriquez was also an All-Big West performer, crossing the finish line in fifth at the conference championships.

We end on the surging life of ladies volleyball who staked the Beach to a nice lead in that Duke’s lifetime free appetizers race with a three zip Black and Blue beat down of UC Irvine. It was the second time this season LBSU snuffed the Eaters, this time 25-21, 25-18, 25-23. The Niners are now 16-11, 9-5 Big West thanks to a big night of blocking. Alas they stay in fourth and don’t have the RPI to get picked as an NCAA at-large entry.

LBSU is back home this weekend hosting UC Santa Barbara on Friday (a game set for ESPN 3 if you do that sort of thing) and Cal Poly on Saturday. Both matches are slotted for 7 p.m. Happy Bird-day to one and all.—DR. DAN