Jan. 8, 2009
Box Score
Long Beach State, Calif. - Playing on the road for the first time in the conference season, the Pacific women's basketball team picked up its first road win of the season with a 76-62 victory at Long Beach State on Thursday, January 8. The win moved the Tigers to 8-6 overall and 2-0 in conference action while the 49ers fell to 3-11 overall and 0-3 in the Big West.
With injuries mounting for the Tigers over the last week, Pacific looked towards its top player from a season ago and second leading scorer this season, senior Janae Young (Sacramento, Calif.), to pick up the slack for the missing players and lead the team on its first road win of the weekend. Despite a slow start in the shooting department, Young responded to the call, netting her second 20+ point performance of the season with 23 points to lead all scorers. In addition, Young grabbed 12 rebounds to post her fourth double-double of the year.
In the all-time series against Long Beach State, the Tigers have struggled against the 49ers on the road, a trend that continued in the first half of the contest after the 49ers jumped out front of the Tigers from the opening tip. With the first five points of the game, the 49ers were able to take a five point lead, a lead they would hover around for the majority of the opening half.
With every spurt the Tigers would have to push the game back to even or within one point, the 49ers had an immediate answer for Pacific, extending their lead back to five points. After the opening tip, Long Beach State never trailed in the first half, pushing its lead to as large as seven points in the final seconds of the half. Lauren Sims paced the 49ers in the first 20 minutes of play with 13 points including hitting her third three-pointer of the half with :05 seconds to go to give the 49ers their seven point halftime lead.
Keeping the Tigers close throughout the half was Young who posted 10 points and seven rebounds in 14 minutes of first half action. However, despite the double-digit scoring, Young struggled in the half hitting just 3-of-13 from the floor. Pacific's leading scorers from the last two games, senior Amber Simmons (Chico, Calif.) and sophomore Gretchen Tiernan (Roseville, Calif.), were held to just two first half points combined as the duo each played just six first half minutes due to injury and foul trouble, respectively. The Tigers were just 10-of-39 from the floor in the opening half of play.
After a spirited halftime talk in the looker room, the Tigers hit the floor in the second half looking like a team with Big West title hopes. Down 37-30 at halftime, the Tigers erased Long Beach State's lead over the first five minutes of the second half with a 15-8 run capped off by a jumper by Young the knotted the game at 45-45. Young scored 10 of the Tigers' 15 points, hitting her first five shots from the floor in the half. She finished the second half 6-of-8 from the field and 9-of-21 for the game.
Back to square one, the Tigers blew by the 49ers, taking their first lead of the game with 13:38 to go and establishing a 10 point advantage with a 14-4 run over the next five minutes to put the game firmly in their control. Long Beach State would close to within six with just over seven minutes to play after four wasted possessions by the Tigers, but a layup and a three-pointer by senior Amy VanHollebeke (Carlsbad, Calif.) put the Tigers back up double-digits and secured the game for the Tigers.
Pacific closed the contest out the game from the free-throw line where the Tigers were 18-of-26 overall, including 12-of-18 in the second half. VanHollebeke scored seven of her 15 points from the stripe, hitting 7-of-8 to go along with her three field goals, two of which were from distance. Additionally, the senior point guard tied her career-high for assists with seven in the contests. The Tigers had 13 team assists.
Young and VanHollebeke were the only Tigers to hit double-figures in scoring while Simmons and Tiernan finished with eight and seven points, respectively. Coming off the bench, Simmons' streak of double-figure scoring ended at 13 games.
The 49ers had four players reach double-figures with Courtney Jacob scoring a team-high 14 points on 5-of-11 shooting. Whitney Fields, the 49ers' leading scorer and rebounder, finished the game with a double-double, scoring 13 points and grabbing 12 rebounds. Sims, the leader in the first half finished the second half scoreless to end the game with 10 points while Adelle Walton closed the game with 10 points.
A game pitting the No.1 and No. 2 rebounding teams in the conference (Pacific averaged 40.3 rebounds per game to the 49ers 39.8 per game, coming in) saw the Tigers dominate the glass grabbing 50 rebounds including 22 offensive boards to the 49ers' 40 rebounds. After Young, the Tigers got an even effort on the glass with Tiernan, Simmons and freshman Andrea Swanson (Littleton, Colo.) each grabbing six rebounds. Swanson also scored a season-high nine points in her first start of the year for the injured Simmons.
The win marked the first time in five attempts the Tigers have won a contest at the Pyramid in Long Beach. It also marks the first time since the 2003-04 season Pacific has started Big West Conference play 2-0.
The Tigers will be back in action on Saturday, January 10 when they travel to UC Riverside to take on the Highlanders in conference action. The game is scheduled for 5:00 pm.
