9:15am | You won’t see the listing on the game program you purchase on the way in to your seat, but the Niner hoops of the hardwood are desperately seeking new roster additions, just call ‘em Mr. of Ms. Momentum.
With all of the non-conference chores out of the way, it is the Big West business that has the attention of Dan Monson and Jody Wynn. And the secret ingredient for survival is that elusive and fickle ingredient “momentum”.
Coach Monson’s bunch needed Mr. Mo during their Monday and Thursday wins but not so much on Saturday.
Wynn’s wounded warriors got off to an unexpected 2-0 conference start (“gosh, we were reading all about being undefeated in conference and it was exciting until…” and then her voice trailed off.) They battled the CSUN women with their usual short and smallish bench but their back court engines, Hallie Meneses and Mary Ochiltree both played with injuries. That allowed the clever former 49er assistant Jason Flowers send his Matadors to collapse on LBSU insiders Tipesa Moorer and Alex Sanchez.
In their two BWC wins the pressing ball hawking defense led to fast break points, and well a lot of momentum. Facing a taller and deeper CSUN side the best the Beach could do was to cut an 11-point deficit late to a final of 57-50. For the 49ers it was just their second home loss of the season and sent their record to 7-9 overall (but, as Jody would note,” we are still 2-1 in the Big West.”).
At times freshman Lauren Spargo appears to play for both teams at the same time, the spirited blond (she missed a game earlier when she same to work with blue hair) led LBSU with 15 points and seven rebounds but four turnovers. , part of a 26 TO afternoon for the Beach and that helped the visitors, on the scoreboard an in momentum.
The Long Beach State ladies, who has played its last six games at home goes on the road next weekend for a pair of Big West games at Pacific (Jan. 12) and UC Davis (Jan. 14).
Mr. Mo took the Luxe bus with the Beach boys to Northridge and another of their four headed scoring stars, (Larry Anderson 20 points) worked CSUN in an easy 81-68 Big West Conference win to improve to 3-0 in first place in the Big West and 10-6 overall.
Anderson line was an impressive 7-of-12, shots, 4-of-5 from 3-point range, nine rebounds and five assists. T.J. Robinson chipped and dunked in 17 points and gather eight boards. James Ennis –12 points, eight rebounds, four assists and two steals added fuel to his fire for newcomer of the year. Casper Ware scored 12 points, Eugene Phelps had team season-high 14 boards, part of a 47-33 rebound advantage.
Need some bad news to balance the good. Again LB let an opponent (the Matadors) hang around for much of the second half after the 49ers went cold from the free throw line. After making 11 of their first 12, LBSU connected on just two of its next 11 and led by nine with 5:43 to play. As good as Mr. Mo is free throws seem beyond his powers.
BONUS DUSTING—The two injured front court players for WBB (Ella Clark and Sendy Valles) have a date for surgery this coming week and will miss the remainder of the season. By NCAA rules, both are going to get medical red-shirts this season and will be available to us for three more years of play, starting next season.
Long Beach State point guard Casper Ware is one of 20 finalists for the Bob Cousy Award as announced by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., today. Ware was also one of 20 finalists for the award that recognizes college basketball’s top point guard last season.
Ware is averaging 16.9 points, 3.4 assists, and 1.6 steals per game, while making 39.1 percent of his field goals, 31.9 percent of his threes and 82.4 percent of his free throws. He is among the Big West Conference leaders in scoring (2nd), steals (2nd), free throw percentage (2nd), assists (5th), 3-point field goals made (6th), and assist-to-turnover ratio (6th). Ware, who is also on the Wooden Award watch list, has claimed Big West Player of the Week honors twice already this season.
Cal Poly Pomona alum Danny Andrews announced Wednesday his record-setting pledge of $400,000 to their baseball stadium project. It is the largest single gift ever to the Broncos’ athletics department, topping the previous mark – also delivered by Andrews – set at $105,000 in 2008.
“Danny’s dedicated service to the university and generous gift to launch the new baseball stadium project is truly inspirational,” Director of Athletics Brian Swanson said. “His vision and desire to revitalize the baseball stadium will provide generations of Broncos an unprecedented student-athlete experience. Everyone at Cal Poly Pomona is greatly appreciative of this gift from Danny Andrews.”
In pledging this money to the Cal Poly Pomona baseball stadium project, Andrews wants his donation geared toward the construction of the new lights. And the fix it list at Blair is even lengthier. I suspect the fund raisers at LBSU are re-spinning their prospect list to get that Blair field renovation going.
Back to the Mr. or Ms. Mo stuff. Last weekend in volleyball the Beach jumped out to a 2-0 lead over UCI at the Santa Barbara tourney then lost. Saturday night it was a mirror image as LB battled back from 2 down to beat defending national champion Ohio State.
The No. 6 Niner volleyballers came back from a 2-0 deficit whip the Buckeyes 23-25, 22-25, 26-24, 25-23, 15-10. Senior Jim Baughman led Long Beach State with 20 kills, while hitting .469 (20-5-32). Sophomore Taylor Crabb also finished with 17 kills and six digs, while junior Trevor Crabb tallied a career-high 10 kills and five digs. Long Beach State begins MPSF action on the road this weekend when it heads to USC (Jan. 12) and Pepperdine (Jan. 14). First serve for both matches is 7 p.m. and I sure hope that Mr. Mo finds the gym in time. –DR. DAN