{"id":55229,"date":"2025-11-16T03:18:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T03:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/55229\/"},"modified":"2025-11-16T03:18:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T03:18:08","slug":"long-beach-state-cant-hang-on-to-lead-in-loss-to-sac-state-the562-org","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/55229\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Beach State Can\u2019t Hang On To Lead In Loss To Sac State \u2013 The562.org"},"content":{"rendered":"

The562\u2019s coverage of Long Beach State athletics for the 2025-26 season is sponsored by Marilyn Bohl<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Long Beach State looked primed and ready to win their first contest Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

After having their game moved to the Gold Mine due to heavy rain that made the Walter Pyramid unavailable, the Beach won their first quarter of the season and built a 12-point lead late in the third period.<\/p>\n

However, LBSU (0-4) wasn\u2019t able to handle Sacramento State\u2019s late-game defensive pressure as they gave up the lead in a 57-54 loss to the Hornets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re on the corner of something really, really good,\u201d Long Beach State coach Amy Wright said. \u201cWhich is what we want to see, you know, it is not fun to kind of grow this way, but we\u2019re having to grow this way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sophomore guard JaQuoia Jones-Brown had a career night as she scored a game-high 29 points to pace the Beach early as they took advantage of the Hornets\u2019 miscues and took a 15-10 lead after the first period.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing myself and then having my teammates around me,\u201d Jones-Brown said about what helped her during her career night. \u201cJust having them trust me and being that point guard for them. \u2029And just getting into my sweet spots and just doing what I know, what I can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones-Brown kept that pressure on the Hornets (4-1) as she went on a 4-0 run herself as the Beach extended the lead. Judit Oliva Hernandez pushed the lead to 25-14 midway through the second when she drove into the lane and made a one-handed layup after she split defenders with a spin move.<\/p>\n

Sacramento State didn\u2019t back down as Brooklyn Taylor (Long Beach Poly) went on a 4-0 run herself which kickstarted a 6-0 run for the Hornets that cut LBSU\u2019s lead to 25-20. The Beach held on and pushed the lead to 30-23 at halftime.<\/p>\n

The Beach kept the pressure up to start the third quarter as Kenna Ka followed a Jones-Brown layup with a three that extended LBSU\u2019s lead to 12 a minute into the second half.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, the Hornets applied their own pressure switching to a full-court press that gave them momentum as they started to chip away the lead. Shortly after subbing in, Pinja Paananen hit a three that cut the Beach\u2019s lead to two points midway through the third quarter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the pressure kicked up,\u201d Wright said. \u201cYou know, like I said, we really only had one ball handler that was comfortable with it, so we tried to mix up some press brakes. I should have thrown it long. I was a little nervous if we could get it there, we haven\u2019t practiced it. So I was freaked out that it would be a turnover. But hey, what\u2019s another turnover in the front court instead of the back court.\u201d<\/p>\n

LBSU pushed the lead back to four after a couple successful free throws by Jones-Brown. But, after some cold shooting to start, the Hornets started to get things going as Natalie Picton hit a three to cut the lead to three. That led to Sacramento State taking a 38-37 later, but Jones-Brown gave the Beach a 40-38 lead with two minutes left in the third.<\/p>\n

The Beach eventually took a 44-40 lead thanks to another Jones-Brown layup, but Rubi Gray hit a three to cut the lead to one heading into the final period.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The sophomore guard kept helping the Beach build leads as she got another layup to push the lead to 49-45 with six minutes remaining in the game. Khylee Pepe scored nine points for the Beach and had 10 rebounds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, that\u2019s when the Hornets went on a 12-5 run to close out the game. Gray, Picton and Benthe Versteeg all scored in double figures for Sacramento State with 13, 12 and 11 points respectively.<\/p>\n

LBSU will be back at home next Thursday when they host San Francisco at 6 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The562\u2019s coverage of Long Beach State athletics for the 2025-26 season is sponsored by Marilyn Bohl. Long Beach…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-55229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55229","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=55229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}