{"id":138309,"date":"2026-01-18T01:15:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T01:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/138309\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T01:15:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T01:15:15","slug":"csun-falls-to-long-beach-state-in-heartbreaking-fashion-62-61","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/138309\/","title":{"rendered":"CSUN Falls to Long Beach State in Heartbreaking Fashion, 62-61"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONG BEACH, Calif — The CSUN women’s basketball team (6-11, 2-6 Big West) fell to Long Beach State\u00a0by a score of 62-61 on Saturday afternoon at LBS Financial Credit Union Pyramid. It was a game that came down to the last possession, but CSUN couldn’t get its final shot to fall as the Beach’s held\u00a0on to a one-point lead\u00a0as time expired. Jite Gbemuotor<\/a> and Rita Nazario led the way for the Matadors with 16 points each. CSUN fell despite outscoring the Beach 35-25 in the second half.
\n\u00a0
\nHOW IT HAPPENED
\nCSUN went on an early 7-2 run capped off by a three-point bucket from Morgan Edwards<\/a> at the 7:53 mark. Long Beach responded with a big run of its own, going on a 17-2 run, with three different players draining a shot from downtown. With a 19-9\u00a0deficit,\u00a0CSUN broke the drought with a jump shot from Gbemuotor. In the next possession, the sophomore from Nigeria drilled a shot from three, cutting the lead to five at 19-14 with 2:53 left to play in the first. Long Beach State ended the quarter by scoring two more field goals as CSUN added a\u00a0free throw. The Beach carried an eight point lead at 23-15 heading into the second.
\n\u00a0
\nIn the second\u00a0quarter,\u00a0both teams traded punches with no team pulling away. Gbemuotor hit another shot from distance in the early going of the quarter, but Beach outscored the Matadors by two heading into the first media timeout at 3:49. Out of the timeout, Long Beach kept CSUN at bay, only allowing one made field goal\u00a0for the rest of the half. The Matadors played solid defense as well, giving\u00a0up 14 points. Still, Long Beach State carried\u00a0an\u00a011 point lead at 37-26 going into the intermission.
\n\u00a0
\nSECOND HALF
\nCSUN needed the break as it came out of the gates firing in the third quarter. The Matadors went on a 15-4 run to begin the second half. Nazario hit a three-pointer in the run, her third three of\u00a0the\u00a0game. Saray White<\/a> and Gbemuotor each had a field\u00a0goal,\u00a0and Nadia Bernard<\/a> drilled a jumpshot at the 4:04 mark to bring the Long Beach State lead to just one point at 41-40. Bernard then swished a\u00a0free throw at the end of the run which tied the game at 41 apiece. After both teams traded made field goals, the Beach went on a 7-0 run to end the quarter with the scoreboard showing a 50-43\u00a0score\u00a0heading into the fourth.
\n\u00a0
\nIn the fourth quarter, CSUN out hustled Long Beach and went on a 10-3 run to tie the game at 53-53 with 4:14 left to play in the game. Nazario had back-to-back threes in the run as she was a big part of the Matador comeback. Long Beach then went on a mini 4-0 run, as it tried to pull away. However, the Matadors wouldn’t go\u00a0away\u00a0easily. Bernard hit a turnaround jumper with 1:19 left to make it a 57-55 game. The Beach then answered back with a layup. Erika Aspajo<\/a> fought right back with a driving layup of her own to make it 59-57 with 46 seconds left to play. The Beach’s Jaquoia Jones-Brown went into the paint with a layup of her own to push the lead back to four on the next possession. Both teams then traded\u00a0free throws\u00a0as time was running out for the Matadors. Laini Dahlin<\/a> drilled a shot from downtown to cut it to one with 13 seconds left. On the very next possession, Long Beach State turned the ball over, giving CSUN a chance to win it. However, Gbemuotor missed a contested layup as time expired, giving LBSU the win.
\n\u00a0
\nNOTES OF THE GAME<\/p>\n


\n\tJite Gbemuotor<\/a>\u00a0posted her\u00a0fourth consecutive game scoring in double-figures.
\n\tRita Nazario\u00a0made five three-point buckets, her most in a game\u00a0since December 13 against San Jose State.\u00a0
\n\tNadia Bernard<\/a> was CSUN’s third leading scorer with nine points.
\n\tLong Beach State\u00a0won its\u00a0first game of the Big West season after previously going 0-6.
\n\t54 of LBSU’s 62 points came from the starters.
\n\tCSUN had 16 second chance points and 16 offensive rebounds.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

UP NEXT
\nCSUN has a week off before it takes on Hawai’i next\u00a0Saturday,\u00a0Jan. 24. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+ with a tip off just shortly after 1:00 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONG BEACH, Calif — The CSUN women’s basketball team (6-11, 2-6 Big West) fell to Long Beach State\u00a0by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-138309","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\/138309","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=138309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}