LONG BEACH, Calif. — After a quick road trip, Long Beach State returns home Saturday afternoon to face CSUN at the LBS Financial Credit Union Pyramid. With Big West play moving deeper into January, the Beach continue to emphasize consistency, toughness, and growth in conference action.<\/p>\n
RIGHT AWAY
\n\u2022 Bounce-back opportunity at home. Long Beach State returns to the LBS Financial Credit Union Pyramid on Saturday at 2 p.m. to face CSUN, looking to reset after a tough road loss and reassert their identity in Big West play.<\/p>\n
\u2022 If there’s a constant, it’s JaQuoia Jones-Brown<\/a>. The Big West’s iron player:
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\u2022 Jones-Brown doesn’t just carry usage. She carries possessions, pace, and physicality, ranking sixth in the league in offensive rebounds while defending across positions.<\/p>\n \u2022 Jones-Brown’s workload isn’t accidental. She is one of the few Big West players ranked among league leaders in minutes, points, rebounds, free-throw percentage, and double-doubles, making her one of the conference’s most complete two-way guards.<\/p>\n \u2022 Judit Oliva Fernandez<\/a> gives the Beach their backbone inside. She ranks third in the Big West in blocks at 1.67 per game and continues to anchor the paint defensively, especially against teams that rely on downhill guards and interior touches.<\/p>\n \u2022 Kennan Ka<\/a> is the connective tissue. Averaging 31.5 minutes per game, good for 14th in the league, Ka handles the toughest perimeter matchups, spaces the floor, rebounds from the wing, and allows Long Beach State to toggle defensively without sacrificing size or toughness.<\/p>\n \u2022 Khylee Pepe<\/a> is the disruptor, currently leading the team in steals with 26 this season. Pepe is consistently pressuring ball-handlers and igniting defensive energy, especially at home.<\/p>\n \u2022 Freshman Brynna Pukis<\/a> has become a spacing lever. She’s shooting .328 from three, owns multiple perfect 3-for-3 shooting games, and has already posted one of the Big West’s best single-game three-point percentage performances this season, forcing defenses to respect the perimeter.<\/p>\n ABOUT THE BEACH \u2022 Judit Oliva Fernandez<\/a> has had extensive experience playing Internationally for Spain in 3×3 tournaments, an experience that she detailed for the Long Beach State Beach Reads series found at www.longbeachstate.com.<\/p>\n \u2022 Other returning players for Long Beach State in addition to Jones-Brown, Richards, Oliva Fernandez and Ka include sophomore guard Christy Reynoso<\/a>, forward Brelynn Brice<\/a> and center Haley Wright<\/a>. The trio combined for 32 games played during the 2024-25 campaign.<\/p>\n \u2022 Two redshirts also return for Long Beach State. Tairat Samuel-Afolabi<\/a> is a redshirt freshman from Sweden, while Lauren Cummings<\/a> returns after playing 26 games in 2023-24 before redshirting last season.<\/p>\n \u2022 Khylee Pepe<\/a> gives Long Beach State some veteran experience, joining the program as a senior after spending four years at San Diego State, including one as a medical redshirt in 2024-25. Pepe played in all 35 games for the Aztecs in 2023-24 as a junior, averaging 4.2 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1.2 steals per game. In total, Pepe played in 95 games with San Diego State after entering the program as a high school recruit from Bishop Montgomery High School.<\/p>\n \u2022 Long Beach State brought in three high school recruits to join the team this season. Rosie Akot<\/a> is a 6-2 forward whose intensity was noted by Wright, coming from Adelaide in Australia. Morgan Mack<\/a> is a 5-10 guard from Lancaster, who finished her career as the top scorer in Hart HS history, while Brynna Pukis<\/a> was a four-time first-team all-league selection at Glacier Peak High School in Washington.<\/p>\n \u2022 Long Beach State made two changes to the staff in the offseason. Jesse Clark<\/a> joined the program as an assistant coach, coming to the Beach from the Academy of Art in San Francisco where he was the head coach for the last two seasons, capping over 25 years in coaching across multiple levels. The Beach added Ashley Arroyo<\/a> as the team’s Director of Basketball Operations, while Jashae Lee<\/a> and Raru Archer<\/a> return for their third seasons on staff with Amy Wright<\/a> and Long Beach State.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONG BEACH, Calif. — After a quick road trip, Long Beach State returns home Saturday afternoon to face…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137247,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-137246","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-long-beach","8":"tag-long-beach","9":"tag-long-beach-headlines","10":"tag-long-beach-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\tFirst in the Big West, fifth in the nation in minutes at 36.5 per game
\n\tFifth in scoring at 16.9 points per game
\n\tSeventh in rebounding at 7.2 rebounds per game, first among all guards
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\n\u2022 In a Beach Reads feature from Long Beach State Athletics, JaQuoia Jones-Brown’s<\/a> authenticity and unfiltered approach are highlighted as central to her leadership and on-court impact this season, with her growth driven by self-confidence, a team-first mentality, and consistent production. Read more at www.longbeachstate.com.<\/p>\n