Feb. 5, 2009

Final Stats

DAVIS, Calif. - Lauren Sims scored a game-high 21 points to pace Long Beach State on Thursday night as the 49ers battled back from an early 10-point deficit to beat UC Davis 68-64 in a Big West Conference women's basketball game at The Pavilion.

The Aggies dropped their fourth straight game - the last three by a total of 11 points - to fall to 7-13 overall and 3-6 in the Big West. Lauren Juric made a trio of three-pointers and had 14 points for UC Davis while Kasey Riecks added 11. Post Paige Mintun narrowly missed a double-double with nine points and 10 rebounds.

Sims was one of three 49ers in double figures. Kaiti O'Brien made 8 of 12 shots and scored 18 points while LaTorya Barbee hit four three-pointers and had 15 points. Long Beach State improved to 5-16 overall and 2-7 in the Big West.

UC Davis, which trailed by as many as nine points in the second half before fighting back to even, trailed 67-64 with 36 seconds remaining. Juric missed a jumper with nine seconds remaining and Sims got the rebound and was fouled, subsequently making a free throw to seal the win.

"The biggest concern I had was I felt defensively (we gave them) way too many uncontested shots, " said Aggie coach Sandy Simpson. "We've had teams shoot well against us, we've had teams score against us but usually we're contesting shots... But tonight there were way too many breakdowns."

Long Beach State rallied for the win after trailing by double-digits midway through the first half. A 7-0 run by UC Davis - capped by a layup from Juric - made it 20-10 with 10 minutes, 28 seconds remaining before the 49ers capitalized on a 10-2 surge later to tie the game at 33-33 with 2:53 left. Hana Asano, though, connected on a three-point play and Riecks got a layup to give UC Davis a 40-35 halftime lead.

The 49ers responded after the break, however, scoring 20 of the game's next 26 points to assume a 55-46 advantage with just under 12 minutes to go. It was the Aggies' turn to answer, though, getting a layup from Mintun to kick-start at 9-2 run to bring them to within 57-55 with 7:11 to play.

Neither team was able to pull away the rest of the way with the game tied twice, the last time coming at 64-64 wih 1:21 to go. But Barbee made a free throw, the 49ers got two more from O'Brien after an Aggie turnover and then Sims provided the final margin with five seconds left.

"We got down nine but we came back and tied it so there's something to be said for that," said Simpson. "There's something to be said for the ability when we really weren't hitting on all cylinders to fight back and get to a tie game."

UC Davis was just 1 of 10 from beyond the arc in the second half, finishing just 6 of 24 overall. Long Beach State, which started 0 of 8 from long distance, made 8 of its final 14 to shoot 36.4 percent. Both teams did a good with the ball, combining for just 21 turnovers, including only nine from the 49ers.

The defeat was another close one for the Aggies who lost by four points at Cal Poly on Jan. 24, by three at Pacific last weekend and by four on Thursday. They will return to action on Saturday when they host second-place UC Riverside at 7 p.m. at The Pavilion.