Long Beach State drops to 1-4 in Big West play and needs a drastic turnaround to save the season. See the video highlights here for the full story.<\/p>\n
<\/object><\/p>\nThe 49ers looked like an energized team right from the tip-off, with leading scorer Karina Figueroa jumping right into the flow of things with two quick assists and two jumpers. <\/p>\nThe Beach ran up an 11-4 lead, but Riverside began forcing turnovers, draining jump shots and continuously exposed Long Beach’s poor interior defense to take a seven-point halftime lead.<\/p>\nA 49er run fueled by Figueroa and Lauren Sims tied the game up at 38, but Riverside’s Roney Friend worked her way into the paint again and again on her way to 24 points. Ally Wade led the 49ers with 13, but it wasn’t enough. LaToyra Barbee and Figueroa each added 11.<\/p>\nLong Beach coach Mary Hegarty was disappointed with her team’s performance.<\/p>\n“There’s no excuse for that type of effort,” she said, adding that Figueroa’s return – after consulting a third doctor about her chronic foot injuries, she was finally able to play free of pain due to a prosthetic shoe – should have provided extra motivation.<\/p>\n“It’s been great to have her,” Hegarty said. “It’s been kind of a security blanket, but unfortunately it didn’t lead to other players stepping up.”<\/p>\nThe 49ers have been struck by the injury bug all season, which has shown itself in their 3-13 record. Just when Hegarty finds a lineup she can rely on, one of her guards does down.<\/p>\n“There’s bad luck and good luck and unfortunately we’ve had bad luck,” she said in the understatement of the year, after recently losing Ashlee Bookman and Lynea Williams after getting impressive performances from both. Gunner Valeriya Mussina has played in just two games, point guard Tyresha Calhoun missed the first few weeks of the year, Figueroa was out for a month and Courtney Jacob just returned after a leg injury. <\/p>\n“We’ve got to find a way to execute no matter who is out there.”<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<\/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-5925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5925","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=5925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5925\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5925"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=5925"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=5925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
The 49ers looked like an energized team right from the tip-off, with leading scorer Karina Figueroa jumping right into the flow of things with two quick assists and two jumpers. <\/p>\n
The Beach ran up an 11-4 lead, but Riverside began forcing turnovers, draining jump shots and continuously exposed Long Beach’s poor interior defense to take a seven-point halftime lead.<\/p>\n
A 49er run fueled by Figueroa and Lauren Sims tied the game up at 38, but Riverside’s Roney Friend worked her way into the paint again and again on her way to 24 points. Ally Wade led the 49ers with 13, but it wasn’t enough. LaToyra Barbee and Figueroa each added 11.<\/p>\n
Long Beach coach Mary Hegarty was disappointed with her team’s performance.<\/p>\n
“There’s no excuse for that type of effort,” she said, adding that Figueroa’s return – after consulting a third doctor about her chronic foot injuries, she was finally able to play free of pain due to a prosthetic shoe – should have provided extra motivation.<\/p>\n
“It’s been great to have her,” Hegarty said. “It’s been kind of a security blanket, but unfortunately it didn’t lead to other players stepping up.”<\/p>\n
The 49ers have been struck by the injury bug all season, which has shown itself in their 3-13 record. Just when Hegarty finds a lineup she can rely on, one of her guards does down.<\/p>\n
“There’s bad luck and good luck and unfortunately we’ve had bad luck,” she said in the understatement of the year, after recently losing Ashlee Bookman and Lynea Williams after getting impressive performances from both. Gunner Valeriya Mussina has played in just two games, point guard Tyresha Calhoun missed the first few weeks of the year, Figueroa was out for a month and Courtney Jacob just returned after a leg injury. <\/p>\n
“We’ve got to find a way to execute no matter who is out there.”<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<\/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-5925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5925","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=5925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5925\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5925"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=5925"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=5925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/div>\n