Fresh off a win against UC Riverside, Cal State Fullerton women’s basketball carried that momentum on the road Thursday afternoon against their long-time rival Long Beach State, securing an 84-66 win at the LBS Financial Credit Union Pyramid.
A dominant defense set the stage for the offense to operate, as they eased their way to 6-3 in conference play.
Long Beach State had the edge initially, nailing their first two triples and six total field goals. Despite the early 10 points and four straight makes from Titans guard Kya Pearson, the rest of the team put up a mere seven points and shot just over 35% collectively.
However, the Titans’ non-stop full court press began to pay off, as they forced five turnovers and held the Beach scoreless for over five minutes to start the second quarter. That stretch ignited a 12-0 run on offense, allowing the Titans to seize control. They ultimately finished with 25 forced turnovers — their most in a game against the Beach in over two years.
“I think sometimes we just have to settle in and kind of execute our defensive gameplan,” said Head Coach John Bonner. “That first quarter we allowed Long Beach to kind of take shots and make shots, but I thought we buckled down into our defensive game plan after that first quarter and the results kind of show that.”
The defense-to-offense pipeline especially held true in the third quarter with the Titans swiping the ball nine times, continuing to pile onto their lead.
Even though the Titans shot the ball poorly early on in the fourth quarter, Long Beach was also heavily inconsistent from the floor, allowing the Titans to pull away and soundly defeat Long Beach State, with 43 of their 84 points coming off turnovers.
Pearson was a dual-threat throughout for the Titans, finishing with a career high 23 points while adding five assists and five steals. Giving the team a spark on offense and defense, Bonner was proud of his team for pulling away.
“They’re learning to win,” Bonner said. “At the beginning of the year, we had some close losses, and during those times, we learned a lot, and so now we’re just trying to put it together for 40 minutes and learn how to win, but I’m proud of the fight that they put together tonight.”
The Titans have been without freshman phenom Nicole Steiner for the last three games as they are monitoring an injury, but her return is in the near future.
“Nicole is still day-to-day, you know it’s more preventative then it is like an injury, so I’m sure we will see her back in the lineup soon,” Bonner said.
The Titans improve to 10-9 and will head back home to take on Cal Poly San Luis Obispo on Saturday.
Tip off is set for 2 p.m. at Titan Gym.