The UC Irvine Women’s Basketball team (9-8, 4-2) were defeated by Long Beach State (12-2, 5-1), 62-50, at the Bren Events Center on Jan. 22. Long Beach defended their place atop the Big West, as the upstart Anteaters missed their shot at the top spot.
The first three possessions of the game were scores, as Long Beach showed off their dextrous passing and Irvine pounded the boards. The ‘Eater offense seemed in good health, scoring 10 points before the end of the sixth minute. However, they suddenly hit a brick wall.
This harsh halt of Irvine’s momentum was caused by Long Beach’s variation of the 4-1 zone. Leaving four players to play aggressive defense on the perimeter, LBSU had only a single player defending the mid range and the paint. Now, a single defender held the job of two. The only way that Long Beach could make this work was with senior forward Maddi Utti — a defender tall enough to protect the rim and fast enough to close out to midrange cutters.
Utti was an active defender; however, the overload in responsibility meant that Irvine’s bigs could get inside positions for ideal post opportunities. The only problem was that they weren’t able to get possession of the ball. All UCI bigs, who were anywhere from four to six inches taller than Utti, scored a total of three points in the first half.
Despite this, both good contested shooting and poor shooting left the score tied up at 25-25 going into half time.
The winds of fortune turned coming out of the locker room when UCI sophomore guard Chloe Webb stole the ball for a layup. She then immediately secured an “and-1” layup on the next play, scoring the first five points for the Anteaters after the break.
However, those five points led to a period of stagnation on offense for UCI as they fell into a scoring drought for the next five minutes.
UCI was already struggling against Beach’s zone, but their foul troubles added to the issue. Freshman guard Olivia Williams picked up her fourth foul with over three minutes left in the quarter. Long Beach scored 12 points from the free throw line. Conversely, UCI only managed to score 10 in the whole quarter. At one point, the Beach led by as many as 13 points.
In the fourth quarter, it seemed that the Anteaters had finally figured out a way to score against Long Beach’s zone when they cut into the deficit to trail by just seven. Long Beach fought back, scoring seven unanswered points to effectively put the game away. Whenever
it seemed like UCI was gaining momentum, Long Beach would respond, leaving the Anteaters wrecked.
At the end of the match, redshirt freshman guard Kayla Williams was the Anteaters’ highest scorer with 15 points. For the Beach, redshirt junior guard Ma’Qhi Berry was on top with 15 points as well. The Anteaters shot an abysmal 34% from the field, and Long Beach went to the line 23 times to make 21 free throws.
The Anteaters played against the CSU Bakersfield Roadrunners at the Icardo Center on Thursday, Jan. 27 at 7 p.m, winning 81-73.
Angus Wong is a Sports Staff Writer. He can be reached at anguscw@uci.edu.
Benjamin Hendricks is a Sports Staff Writer. He can be reached at bahendr1@uci.edu.