The Long Beach State women’s basketball team is hosting UC Davis on Friday and Saturday at 4 p.m. in the Walter Pyramid with history on the line. The Beach and the Aggies are the last undefeated teams remaining in the Big West, with LBSU at 10-0 and UC Davis at 4-0.
The Beach are off to their best start in conference play since 1988-89, which was also the last time they won a regular season conference title without sharing it. Davis, meanwhile, was the overwhelming preseason conference favorite but spent most of the year shut down due to COVID-19 restrictions.
The two teams’ status as the last remaining unbeaten teams in the Big West has lent a real championship flavor to this weekend’s series.
“I’m very excited,” said LBSU coach Jeff Cammon. “It’s always fun to compete and especially against the best. They’ve been the best the last seven, eight, nine years in this conference. That’s our goal, we want to be the best. It’s going to be a challenging series but we believe we’re up for the challenge.”
The Beach have been winning with defense this year, and are top ten in the country in steals per game. Long Beach has had a less predictable offense that has struggled at times, and will need to be at its best to knock off UC Davis.
The Aggies are led by Sage Stobbart and Cierra Hall, their two bigs who average 27 points per game combined. At 6-3 and 6-0, Stobbart and Hall will pose a matchup problem for the Beach in the post.
Nonetheless, Long Beach State’s leader Justina King likes her squad’s chances.
“This is just another team in the conference,” she said. “It’s one of the better ones but we’re going to do the same things we’ve been doing.”
