LONG BEACH, Calif.–UC San Diego women's basketball fell to Long Beach State, 70-52, on Saturday afternoon in Walter Pyramid. With the loss, the Tritons (8-10, 5-3 Big West) fell to 0-6 in the all-time series with the Beach (11-7, 6-2 Big West).
 
Izzy Forsyth led the Tritons with 12 points, while Emily Cangelosi added 10 and Parker Montgomery chipped in eight. Sydney Brown tallied a team-high 10 rebounds and Katie Springs added four. Brown and Junae Mahan led the team with three assists and Montgomery collected two steals.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Both teams got off to a slow start with the Tritons leading 6-4 midway through the period. Long Beach State then went on a 14-point run to build a comfortable 18-6 lead heading into the first quarter break. 
 
The Beach carried the momentum into the second quarter, extending their lead to as many as 19 with 4:54 to play in the period. UC San Diego began to find its rhythm down the stretch, outscoring LBSU, 14-3 to cut the deficit to single digits before the Beach took a 34-24 lead into the halftime break.
 
The teams traded baskets through the first seven minutes of the second half, battling to a 49-40 lead for LBSU with 3:00 to play in the period. The Beach then closed out the quarter with a 10-2 run to make it 59-42 at the final quarter break. LBSU scored over half of its 25 points in the period on free throws, making 13-of-15.
 
Long Beach carried the momentum into the final quarter with a 6-0 run to open the period, and extended their lead by as many as 24 points. Tritons continued to battle late, but the deficit proved too much.
 
QUOTABLE
"Very disappointed in the way the game went," said head coach Heidi VanDerveer. "Obviously, Long Beach is a very talented team. I thought we had a good game-plan coming in and we just weren't able to execute it—specifically defensively. We had learned from the first game we couldn't give up easy baskets in transition and o-boards and we weren't able to execute on either one of those. And really their pressure and their length bothered us. Harris came out and had a great game, was a tough guard for us and we just sent them to the free-throw line way too much.
 
We had a group in the second quarter that came in and got us some momentum, but the fouls in the third quarter and the lack of urgency to get defensive stops really set the tone for the second half. I know we've had a tough stretch of games here and we've grown a lot, we just need to regroup now for the second half of conference play."
 
TRITON TIDBITS

• Izzy Forsyth recorded her seventh double-figure scoring effort of the season.
• UC San Diego held the advantage in rebounds (33-30), bench points (15-9), second chance points (13-6) and shot 34.6% from the field compared to 48.1% for the Beach. The Tritons finished 6-for-24 (25%) from three-point range compared to 3-for-14 (21.4%) for LBSU.
• Long Beach State had the edge in points off of turnovers (22-12), points in the paint (38-24) and collected 14 steals.
• UC San Diego starters were Sydney Brown, Emily Cangelosi, Izzy Forsyth, Julia Macabuhay and Parker Montgomery. 

UP NEXT
The Tritons will return home for back-to-back contests in LionTree Arena next weekend, playing host to CSUN on Thursday at 7 p.m. for Lung Cancer Awareness Night. On Saturday, UC San Diego will take on UC Riverside for National Girls & Women in Sports Day at 2 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+ and live statistics will be available via UCSDTritons.com.
 
About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program began a new era in 2020 as a member of The Big West Conference in NCAA Division I. The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions II and III and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 83 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 38 have earned prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 91 percent, one of the highest rates among institutions at all divisions.