NCAA WOMEN’S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT : West Regional : CS Long Beach Is on Its Way to Tacoma

C. Vivian Stringer, the Iowa women’s basketball coach, is fond of telling her team, “Play the game, don’t play individuals.”

Such is the abundance of talent on this team that the Hawkeyes took Stringer’s philosophy and turned it into a No. 1 ranking for eight weeks and, nearly, an undefeated season.

Saturday night, however, the Hawkeyes (29-2) met a team, and several individuals, they could not beat as Cal State Long Beach (28-5) won the NCAA West Regional tournament, 98-78, before 2,179 fans in the sweltering Campus Gym.

The 49ers advanced to the Final Four for the second year in a row and will play Auburn Friday night at Tacoma, Wash.

The 49ers did not stray from the game plan that brought them this far. They ran and ran--faster, Stringer thought, than any team in the nation. And they had 51 rebounds to Iowa’s 37.

The 49ers’ Penny Toler led all scorers with 27 points. That was expected. The surprise was Traci Waites, a junior with a deadly pull-up jumper. Waites had 21 points to add credence to Long Beach Coach Joan Bonvicini’s credo, “We are not a one-dimensional team.”

In case the point was missed, Shameil Coleman scored 18 points for Long Beach.

As they have for so much of this season, the 49ers jumped out to a quick lead. After only eight minutes they had an 11-point edge.

“I think playing in this facility and playing at home was a factor,” Bonvicini said.

Both teams had plenty of fans at the game, and the Hawkeye crowd was thrilled when Iowa came back to match every Long Beach scoring surge.

The 49ers led by nine points at halftime, and they led by as many as 16 in the second half. Iowa was able to cut that to eight, but there was no stopping the Long Beach fast break.

Bonvicini was substituting freely at the end, letting all of her players savor the moment. As each 49er left the game to make way for a fresh player, she was handed a blue T-shirt that read, “Catch Us at the Final Four.”

Bonvicini ordered the shirts a month ago.

As her players were fouling out in the game’s waning seconds, Stringer went to each one and offered words of consolation. Most just sat quietly. This was a team that was prevented by one basket from advancing to the Final Four last season.

Jolynn Schneider, a senior starting forward, could not sit down on the bench but could only stand, hand to her mouth, and stare blankly while her team was losing.

“I just wanted to win,” she said. “It’s so hard. We have worked so hard. I was wondering, what does it take to get to the Final Four? Every year our efforts get thwarted. You wonder, why?”

The other Iowa senior was on the floor. Michelle Edwards, an All-American playing in her last college game, seemingly was unwilling to give up the ball. With each Hawkeye possession, Edwards drove the length of the court for a basket. She scored the Hawkeyes’ last six points.

After getting 26 points, Edwards fouled out with 19 seconds left. Shanda Berry, who never let up, had 20 points and 13 rebounds for Iowa.

After the game, Long Beach fans spilled out of the stands, and the 49ers whooped with fans and teammates alike. When a ladder was brought out to allow the victors to cut down the nets, Iowa’s team quietly filed out, unable to watch the tradition they had hoped to celebrate themselves.

Asked to evaluate her team’s season, Stringer said, “It was like Cinderella. We surprised a lot of people. This team has far exceeded anyone’s expectations. We decided we liked (being) Cinderella. I really thought that Cinderella was not going to turn into a pumpkin at midnight. I thought we were going to Tacoma, Washington.”

Iowa’s dream ended in a steamy gym Saturday night. The dream, or awakening, for Long Beach, lies ahead.

Tournament Notes

Named to the all-tournament team were Cherie Nelson of USC, Shanda Berry and Michelle Edwards of Iowa and Traci Waites and Penny Toler of Cal State Long Beach. Toler was named the most valuable player. . . . The temperature in the gym was close to 90 degrees. Coach Joan Bonvicini said she had to stop practices this week for frequent water breaks. “It had to be 100, kids were cramping,” she said. Perhaps the final word on the controversy of holding a regional in a 2,200-seat arena was said by Bonvicini, “I don’t think we’ll be hosting many other regionals.”