By james art 
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Expansion
Irvine – Long Beach State Teams and UC Irvine Women’s Basketball Teams are part of a narrow battle for the first place in the Big West Conference. Locked in three-way draw with Hawaii, both rivals brought a 7-1 record in the league in the game on Thursday night at the Center for Bren’s event and their intentions to maintain at least the first place.
There are too many games in a regular season to decide who will end in the standings, but overnight UCI did its case with a 61-47 victory over Long Beach at the Bren’s Event Center.
With the victory, anteater (14-6, 8-2 Grand West), overtook Long Beach (11-8, 7-3) and remained in draw with Hawai San Diego in overtime on Thursday.
“I think every game we play in has a lot of game,” said UCI coach Tamara Inu. “It’s early, though I think we obviously still want to fight for the first place. (Long Beach coach) Amy (Wright) did a phenomenal work of Long Beach and they play so hard. So, we knew it would be a battle today, so we were ready for it. “
The teams will play again on March 1 at Lbsu, a game that can decide the best seeds for the Big West tournament.
Long Beach, which is the average, the best conference 70.6 points per game, settled against the national-ranked defense of anteater. UCI is 18th in the country, holding opponents up to 55.2 ppg.
Just as impressive as their protection was the crime of anteater, which was received by four players in double numbers led by Hunter Hernandez, who had 16 points, 11 fights for his fourth dual-spirit career. The junior guard also had two assists and one theft.
Deja Lee added 15 points at 5 to 13 firing 3 for 6 of a 3-point range), while Nicky Tom had 11 points and four thefts and Olivia Williams scored 10 points.
“The last few years we have been more known for our protection and then this year we have much more fire power,” Inue said. “But we really push the defense a little more, returning it to what we know. I thought they did a really good job, understanding intelligence and staff and receiving afterwards. Most importantly, our bounce was a big key today. “
Anti-ate surprepted Long Beach, 46-41.
The game remained close until UCI made a boost in the third quarter. Having an advantage of 35-32, the hosts continued with 10-3 to push their lead to 45-35 with one second to the left.
Lee opened the last quarter with a 3-indicated one to give the anteatters an 11-point edge, their biggest lead at this time at that moment. That was all they needed when Long Beach struggled to find the basket.
Jada Crenshaw had 13 points and 11 rebounds to achieve Lbsu, and Lovely Sonnier added 10 points. Rachel Lobby brought seven points and seven rebounds.
The senior guard Savannah Tucker, who leads the conference to mark 15.8 ppg, ended with eight points in shooting 3 out of 10.
Wright said her team could not break the UCI area, which led to missed shots and speeds. Long Beach turned the ball over 21 times.
“Obviously, they are a little higher, a little longer than us and have some good athletes who can cover a lot of space,” Wright said. “I just thought we worked all week at Shot Fake and Ball Fake and we just didn’t really use it.”
Wright said he hoped for a different result when they met again in the Walter Pyramid.
“We came last year and it was a close game and then in our place last year, it was a close game,” Wright said. “So we will make adjustments. I still play very young children. They get wet and we just try to improve each day. “
The first half was close, as UCI’s Nevaeh Dean scored when laying, and Tom buried a 3-pointed one to give an anteaters a 26-23 lead.
UCI failed to score nearly five minutes in the first quarter, as Lbsu ran to 16-9 lead. Williams ended the UCI land land with a 3-minute indicated one to pull anteaters within 16-12. It was the spark they needed.
Leaving the 18-14, Williams buried his second 3-story to close the gap to one with 6:48 to play in the first half. After Tucker struck a 3-pain to give Long Beach 21-17, Hernandez replied with a 3-indicator.
The anti-artists surpassed Long Beach, 6-3 to close the half.
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