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The 49ers new and fab freshman 5-10 Raven Benton handles the pressure of LMU\u2019s 6-1 junior Emily Ben-Jumbo in the Beach\u2019s home opening win over the Lions. Photo by John Fajardo<\/em><\/p>\n If you looked at Wikipedia<\/i> 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Benton\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Next up this weekend are two Pyramid games, Pepperdine on Saturday and Omaha on Sunday with both games scheduled for a 2PM start.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n DUST BUSTING<\/strong>\u2014MLB slugger Manny Ramirez<\/a> still hasn\u2019t given up<\/a> 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, \u201cHe 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\u2013he is very humble, driven, and competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n