What a difference two days makes. 

On Saturday, a slow start did in the Long Beach State women’s basketball team against BYU, 66-49.  On Monday, the 49ers scored the first five points of the game and never looked back on their way to a 74-61 victory over New Mexico State in the ‘Myd.

Whitney Fields came off the bench to score a career-high 30 points, hitting 13 of her 17 shot attempts, and pulling down six rebounds in 28 minutes of action.  She became the second 49er this season to reach the 30-point barrier as classmate Courtney Jacob accomplished the feat at Loyola Marymount (Nov. 24).

LBSU (3-7) shot a season-high 46.8 percent (29-for-62) from the field, while holding the Aggies to just 36.8 percent (21-for-57). The 49ers also outrebounded NMSU, 42-40, and committed a season-low 10 turnovers.

Freshman guard Adelle Walton chipped in 10 points and six assists for the 49ers, while Jacob added nine points, six boards and six helpers. Brett Timmons played maybe her best game of the season, and finished the afternoon with a career-best 11 rebounds.

LBSU quickly went up 10-4 after a jumper by Timmons, but the Aggies chipped away and took their first and only lead of the game at 14-12 with 12:18 remaining in the half. The Beach eventually pulled ahead for good, thanks to a 20-6 run that put the 49ers up by 16 points with 39 seconds on the clock.

The Aggies came out of the break firing as they went on a 15-6 spurt to cut the deficit to just six points at 46-40 with 14:37 remaining in the game, but the 49ers rebuilt their lead to 10 after back-to-back jumpers by Fields. The Beach never looked back from there, going up by as many as 17 points, as it ran away with the 74-61 win.

Long Beach State will return to action on Monday, Dec. 29, when it heads to Fresno State for its final tune-up before opening Big West Conference play at UC Santa Barbara (Jan. 2). The 49er-Bulldog match up is set to get underway at 7 p.m.

From Reports By Long Beach State Sports Information Department