49er Women Hit Some High Notes to Beat Nevada Las Vegas, 90-73

Freshman Cheryl Dowell sang the national anthem and, for an encore, came off the bench to help the Cal State Long Beach women score a 90-73 victory over Nevada Las Vegas in a Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. game Wednesday night at the 49er gym.

Reserves Dowell, Bettina Turner and Shaundra McMichael each scored 10 points to pace the 49ers (11-2 overall and 2-0 in the PCAA) after they almost blew a 17-point halftime lead.

But the real spark was provided by a fight between Carol Brandt of Long Beach and Zina Harris of Las Vegas (8-6 and 0-1) midway through the second half.

“Carol had that confrontation, then we started playing hard,” Long Beach Coach Joan Bonvicini said.

After the fight, the Lady Rebels’ Angela Christian scored on a rebound to cut the lead to 55-53, but that was as close as Las Vegas got.

The 49ers went into a full-court press, and Dowell, McMichael, Turner and center Cindy Brown turned back Las Vegas’ challenges the rest of the way.

Brown scored 33 points for the 49ers. Donya Monroe scored 25 points for the Lady Rebels, and Christian added 20.