Women’s Basketball Roundup : 49er Women Hit Some High Notes and Beat UNLV

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

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

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

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

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 every Las Vegas challenge 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.

In other women’s games:

Saddleback 91, Cypress 78--Connie Waikle scored 44 points on 21 of 26 shooting from the field to lead the Gauchos to the win at home. Cheryl Eiland added 19 points for the Gauchos. Janet Huffman scored 27 points for the Chargers. Saddleback (4-1 and 13-6) is at Fullerton Friday.

Orange Coast 76, Golden West 65-Mary Thobe scored 19 points, and Amy Hathcock added 17 points to lead the Pirates to a victory over the Rustlers. Lisa Schumaker added 10 rebounds for OCC (3-1, 14-4). Golden West’s top two scorers were Kim Abeyta with 20 points and Shanna Beer with 11. The Rustlers are 1-4 in conference play.