<\/p>\n
The fan support, the emotion, the intensity\u2014everything was there for the Long Beach State women’s basketball team except the W, as they came up a few plays short against the Trojans, 83-77. <\/span>Karina Figueroa shone in front of a section full of her family and fans, posting another double-double with 26 points and ten assists.<\/p>\n Playing against a team that was faster, stronger, longer, and generally more athletic, the 49ers kept clawing their way back into a game it seemed like they should be losing. <\/span>USC outrebounded them on the offensive glass two-to-one, and out-everythinged them except in the hustle category. <\/span>Despite being down ten at halftime, and down twelve with just five minutes left, they kept scrapping during a furious late-game burst that saw them actually pull within three points, 80-77, after LaTorya Barbee’s and-one was good, as a suddenly raucous crowd of over 1,000 cheered them on. <\/span>The Trojans hit enough free throws down the stretch to seal the win, but even with a defensive effort that wasn’t complete, coach Jody Wynn (playing against her old team in USC) was happy with the win.<\/p>\n “We showed heart and toughness,” she said after the game. <\/span>“If you keep fighting like that, eventually you win those.” <\/span>She also said the heart and the fight started with Figueroa, whose effort bled into her teammates’ performance.<\/p>\n Figueroa finished with a good line, but it would be hard to overestimate her impact on her team\u2014USC is a fast, up-tempo squad, and Figueroa set the same tempo for the 49ers, making sure they weren’t outrun. <\/span>Her 26 points led all scorers. “We played our hearts out,” she said. <\/span>“This team hasn’t finished like that in years. <\/span>We just have to play like that all game, and keep finishing.” <\/span>Then in a display of confidence she smiled and nodded, and said, “We’ll get it done.”<\/p>\n That statement highlights the way the whole team seemed to be feeling\u2014they played a 6-1 team to their limit, and proved to themselves that with full effort, they can compete with teams over their head. <\/span>As Wynn said, “I’m not into moral victories\u2014but I’ll take that one.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The fan support, the emotion, the intensity\u2014everything was there for the 49ers except the W, as they came up a few plays short against the Trojans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-2622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2622\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2622"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=2622"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}