LONG BEACH, Calif — Long Beach State set the tone early Thursday night at the LBS Financial Credit Union Pyramid, shooting over 70 percent from the field in the opening quarter and building a 24-17 advantage after 10 minutes of play. The Beach showcased crisp ball movement and inside efficiency early, but Cal State Fullerton responded over the final three quarters to pull away for an 84-66 decision.<\/p>\n
The Beach finished the night with three players in double figures, led by freshman Rosie Akot’s<\/a> 16 points. Akot, who averages 5.6 points and 4.8 rebounds per game this season, continued her steady development with one of her most efficient outings of the year while also tying for the team lead with nine rebounds. JaQuoia Jones-Brown<\/a> once again filled the stat sheet in all areas, adding 13 points, nine rebounds, and seven assists, continuing her role as the general of the LBSU offense. Freshman Morgan Mack<\/a> rounded out the double-digit scorers with 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting, matching her season high and providing a spark off the perimeter and in transition.<\/p>\n As a team, Long Beach State shot 50.0 percent from the field, marking its highest shooting percentage of the season, and finished with 31 rebounds while recording 18 assists. The Beach’s offensive balance reflected a season-long emphasis on sharing the ball, with Jones-Brown, Kennan Ka<\/a>, and Brynna Pukis<\/a> combining for 13 assists.<\/p>\n After the hot start, LBSU was unable to maintain momentum as pressure defense and turnovers shifted the flow of the game in the second quarter. Despite continuing to compete on the glass and generating quality looks in the second half, the Beach could not close the gap down the stretch.<\/p>\n Long Beach State will look to build on its first-quarter efficiency and continued growth as they head to UC Santa Barbara for their next Big West bout. Tipoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Saturday, January 24.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONG BEACH, Calif — Long Beach State set the tone early Thursday night at the LBS Financial Credit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146127,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-146126","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\/146126","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=146126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}