By LBSU’s Andrea Ohta

The Long Beach State women’s basketball team, which had five players sidelined with the flu, was unable to complete its second straight comeback victory as the 49ers fell to UC Irvine, 68-62, Saturday evening at the Walter Pyramid.

The Beach shot 41.0 percent from the field, but the Anteaters wouldn’t be outdone as they owned an impressive 47.3 field goal percentage. UCI also won the battle on the boards by a 40-36 margin.

Senior Lynea Williams led the 49ers in scoring for the second game in a row, finishing with a career-high 16 points. Junior Whitney Fields chipped in 14 points and a team-best seven rebounds, while junior Courtney Jacob and freshman Adelle Walton had nine points apiece.

Long Beach State (4-16, 1-7 Big West Conference) jumped out to an early 5-0 advantage, but UC Irvine came back and took its first lead of the night at 10-9 on a 3-pointer by KaJahna Johnson with 15:46 to play. The two teams went back and forth from there with four more lead changes before the Anteaters went up for good at the 14:42 mark. The 49ers stayed close and were within eight (42-34) at the break.

UCI (5-16, 2-6 BWC) went on a 16-8 run to open the second half, taking its largest lead at 58-42 with 9:52 remaining. The Beach then started to chip away, scoring eight unanswered points, capped by a Williams’ layup, to pull within four at 64-60 with 48 seconds on the clock. The 49ers were unable to get any closer, however, as the Anteaters hit four of their six free throws in the final minute.

Rebecca Maessen finished the evening 9-for-18 from the field and 3-of-4 from behind the arc to lead UC Irvine with a game-high 24 points.

Long Beach State will begin the second half of Big West play next week when it heads to UC Davis on Thursday, Feb. 5, for a 7 p.m. (PST) showdown. The 49ers will then make their way to Pacific two days later for a 4 p.m. (PST) contest.