Photo by Christina Pompa

Women rebound to beat CSUN

There would be no second-half collapse for the Cal State Long Beach women's basketball team in The Pyramid last Tuesday, as there was against Fresno State in the season opener. The 49ers bounced back to defeat Cal State Northridge 65-56.

The 49ers (1-1) went into the locker room up at halftime again, 28-24, but responded this time by keeping the Matadors out of the game.

"We came out after halftime and stayed within our game," said CSULB coach Dallas Boychuk.

With two minutes left in the game, Long Beach held only a 59-56 lead. CSUN was forced to play catch-up, and had to use intentional fouls in order to prevent CSULB from running out the clock.

In all, CSULB went to the free-throw line 39 times but only converted 18 shots.

"We missed our free throws but we kept getting the offensive rebounds, so that pretty much saved us," said Boychuk.

CSULB out rebounded Northridge 59-42, after being out rebounded by Fresno State on Saturday.

Senior forward Adara Newidouski scored 13 of her team-high 17 points in the second half, hitting on an array of outside shots. She also grabbed a team high 15 rebounds.

Sophomore guard Ember Brown also contributed big with 15 points, 10 rebounds, and 4 steals, all career highs.

Brown considered Tuesday's game to be a complete team effort.

"Everyone was in sync today," Brown said. "In the past couple of games mentally we weren't together."

"I think today, everything clicked," she said.

The Matadors dropped to 0-1 . They are coached by former CSULB assistant Michael Abraham. He worked under Joan Bonvicini from 1984-90.

CSUN was led by junior guard Lisa Vaillancourt. Vaillancourt, the victim of "Airball" chants after a wild three- point attempt early in the game, responded to the crowd by drilling 5 three-pointers on her way to a team-high 17 points.

The 49ers played Tuesday's game with many of their players suffering from injury. Six players in all have missed games or are currently out, due to some form of injury.

Their latest victim is freshman guard Kesha Wade, who tore ligaments in her right knee. While expected not to play, she did appear in Tuesday's game. She showed few signs of her injury, with 9 points, 12 rebounds, and 4 steals.