FULLERTON, Calif. - The Cal State Fullerton Titans women's basketball team dropped a home game to Long Beach State 74-59 on Thursday at Titan Gym.
The Titans loss dropped their overall record to 9-18 and 5-12 in conference play. The Titans remain half a game above Cal State Bakersfield in the Big West standings where they hold the eighth and final qualification spot to the Big West Tournament (UCSD is not eligible as they are in their final year of transitioning into Division 1).
The Titans started the game strong where they outscored the Beach by eight in the first quarter. However, the Titans were outscored in the following three quarters.
The Titans offense had three players in double figures as
Hope Hassmann scored 12 points,
Demonnie Lagway had 11, and
Ashlee Lewis had 10 points. The Beach had five players in double figures as Casey Valenti-Paea led all scorers with 16 points. The Titans shot 38.7% from the floor while the Beach only shot 40% from the floor. However, the Beach made 11 three-pointers and the Titans only made 4 three-pointers.
The Titans played their best basketball to start the game in the first quarter. The game was tied at 11-11 after a
Demonnie Lagway three-pointer with 4:43 left in the quarter. The Titans outscored the Beach 12-4 the rest of the quarter.
As good as the Titans were in the first quarter. They immediately gave up their advantage in the second quarter as the Beach started the period on a 15-0 run to take a 30-23 lead over the Titans. The Titans were able to get four straight baskets from
Ashlee Lewis,
Kathryn Neff,
Eva Levingston, and
Gabi Vidmar to regain a 31-30 lead with 1:59 left.
Long Beach went on a 8-2 lead in the final two minutes to take a 38-33 lead into the half.
Brielle Minor made a coast-to-coast bucket for the Titans to give them some positive momentum at least heading into halftime.
The Titans hung tough with Long Beach to keep the game within a possession for the first six minutes of the quarter. However, Long Beach scored the final six points of the quarter and led 51-43 as the Titans went cold the final four minutes.
The Titans tried to mount a comeback in their fourth quarter as their three-point shot finally came alive. However, eacj time the Titans got a three-pointer, Long Beach State responded with their own. Long Beach State outscored the Titans 23-to-16 during the final quarter.
The Titans will head to Santa Barbara on Saturday to take on the Gauchos. Tip-off is set for 4:00 p.m. in the UC Santa Barbara Events Center.
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Titans fans can now watch every home event exclusively on ESPN+. Cal State Fullerton has built a top-tier production studio to give the viewers an ESPN quality production for all games at Titan Stadium. Additionally, all schools in the Big West Conference are committed to producing ESPN quality streams which will allow fans to watch the Titans on ESPN+ for all road conference games.
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