Team beats UCSB for automatic berth
Anna Kim said it would happen. Knew it would. The senior point guard all but guaranteed it.
And it occurred, just the way she promised.
When Long Beach State held off UC Santa Barbara in the waning seconds of the Big West Championship game Saturday, tears flowed.
“When that buzzer goes off and we are declared Big West champs, I know for sure I’m going to cry,” Kim said two days earlier.
She wasn’t alone.The game came down to the final minute and Long Beach, which led by as many as 19 points, needed solid defense in the final minute to hold off the Gauchos, 56-55, and advance to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 26 years.
The team will find out Monday who they will face, and where they will play their first-round NCAA game.
Heading into the tournament, Kim said she thought the senior class was ready for the challenge. She is one of five seniors on this year's team.
“I think we’ve accepted this challenge, this opportunity and think each and every one of us is ready to step up. It’s one game at a time.”
Said Coach Jody Wynn: “We’re trying to do something that our program hasn’t done in many years and these girls have never done and I’ve never done. The only way we do it is if we are focused in our preparation and then we go out and relax and play the game we all love to play.
“We have to play disciplined. We have to be urgent for 40 minutes. We have to stay focused. We have to understand that basketball is a game of runs, and remember from past experiences, where we’ve been down 20 and come back, or up 20 and lost the game, or managed to survive in the final seconds. We have to draw upon past experiences.”
Good and bad. Last season, Long Beach State was poised to reach the tournament final for the first time since 2001, but lost to Hawai’i by six points in the semifinals, leaving them to ponder what went wrong and what they could do right the next time.
Kim said their experience should give them an edge. Raven Benton, named Big West Sixth Woman of the Year, leads the team in scoring at 11 points a game, while Madison Montgomery (10.1) and Kim (10.0) also are averaging double figures. Jewelyn Sawyer, the conference’s top defensive player, is contributing 9.1 points and 6.3 rebounds a game.
Long Beach also defeated every conference foe at least once during the regular season, and swept UC Davis (23-6), the tournament’s top-seeded team.
“We need to break down each quarter like it’s four games, and I think if we come out with a strong mentality and punch it in right off the bat, I see us having success,” said Kim, named Hustle Player of the Year.
Long Beach will be relying on its balanced scoring, quickness and defense to attain their ultimate goal. They have consistently ranked among the top 25 teams in turnover ratio.
“We have put ourselves in tournament mode,” Wynn said. “We understand it’s ‘survive and advance’ once you get to March. We’re not talking about last year. We’re talking about our team this year and taking care of our discipline.
“They need to stay urgent and focused in their preparation every day."
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