NCAA Championship Eludes Women 2nd Year in a Row : 49ers Try Not to Let Last Loss Spoil Season

Through the Pacific Northwest gloom, the Cal State Long Beach women’s basketball team and its followers brightly envisioned last Friday that Easter weekend would end in a celebration of the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. championship. No one wanted to think there was also the chance that in a few hours 49er hearts could be broken.

Wearing the confident smiles that come with a 20-game winning streak, the 49ers practiced last Thursday afternoon in the spacious Tacoma Dome.

Joan Bonvicini, the team’s 34-year-old coach, sat on a basketball and shouted: “Come on, defense, get up on your girl” and “Get a better pass.”

The 49ers worked up a sweat in the cool air, then practiced foul shots.

“Ladies, no talking during free throws,” Bonvicini ordered.

At a press conference afterward, Bonvicini said she felt more relaxed than she did last year when the 49ers went to the Final Four for the first time and lost to Tennessee in the semifinals.

“This isn’t a do-or-die thing,” she said. “When I feel it’s a job, then I’ll quit. I’m intense, but I want to have fun. I’m not phony and the team reflects me. We’re not cocky, we’re confident. We want to have fun and want people to enjoy us.”

Answering reporters from the South, who asked, “What do y’all have to do to beat Auburn?” she said the 49ers would have to rebound well to win.

The players rode a bus 25 miles back to their hotel near the Seattle-Tacoma airport, then got dressed up and went to a banquet on the top floor of a Seattle skyscraper.

More than 170 boosters, who follow the 49er women with an unshakable loyalty, arrived Friday, the largest rooting contingent among the four competing schools.

One of them, Don Friedman, said: “Getting here is the big thing. Anything beyond is gravy, and we’re hoping for a little gravy.”

Each booster had paid $350 for a weekend package that included air fare, hotel room and game ticket.

Michael Abraham, a 49er assistant coach, said the connection between the players and boosters is like a mother-daughter or father-daughter relationship. “The kids enjoy them and feel protected,” he said.

Steve Holton, CSULB associate athletic director, was dressed in gold, as were the boosters, as the semifinal game with Auburn neared Friday night. “Joan works to get the boosters involved,” Holton said, adding that because the players are a reflection of Bonvicini, “it’s kind of like little Joans all over the place.”

After sitting through a boring opening game in which Louisiana Tech beat Tennessee, the 49er fans shook pompons and waived BEACH signs as their team took the court for its biggest game of the season.

If there is such a thing as a game face, Penny Toler, the 49ers’ 5-foot-8 All-American junior guard, has it. Close-mouthed and sullen--in contrast with her off-court personality--she strutted from one shot to the next as the 49ers warmed up. What she was thinking, she said later, was, “You’re the best guard in the house, play like it.”

The bench scenes were different. Bonvicini wore black slacks, high heels and a sweater and had two male assistants. Auburn Coach Joe Ciampi wore a sports coat and had three female assistants.

Five seconds after the opening tip-off, Toler hit a short jump shot to give the 49ers a 2-0 lead. They did not score another point for four minutes and Toler, stymied by the zone defense she abhors, would make only one more basket the rest of the half.

Auburn moved to a 9-2 lead.

Bonvicini yelled an expletive when Long Beach failed to get a rebound.

With their famous fast break not working, the 49ers were not having fun and not being particularly enjoyable.

“I want the ball to go to the hole (basket),” Bonvicini shouted. “I don’t want jump shots.

The Lady Tigers, who had beaten the 49ers early in the season, had their way throughout the first half.

Seconds before the half ended, 49er forward Shameil Coleman retrieved a loose ball and threw in a shot from the corner that was good for three points. Showing emotion for the first time, the 49ers left the court trailing only 29-26.

“The worst half of women’s basketball I’ve ever seen, it’s a shame it has to be on (national) TV,” booster Morrie Stalk said. “I’ve never seen us score 26 points in a half,” Stalk said of the 49ers, who average 88 points a game.

With 11 minutes left in the game, Auburn, a much stronger team around the basket, still led 42-35. Then the 49ers ran off 11 points in a row.

Burst of Showmanship

At 10:30, Toler whirled into the foul lane like the Harlem Globetrotter she hopes some day to be and, surrounded by three players, hit a jumper. Twenty seconds later, she sped the length of the court for a layup to give the 49ers a 43-42 lead, their first since it was 2-0. Then she put on another lightning series of moves that resulted in a three-point play that made the score 46-42. Her burst won over many of the 8,719 fans, who cheered louder than they had all night.

The boosters were delirious. They could taste the gravy.

The 49ers led, 50-48, with five minutes to play, then the unthinkable happened. They were outscored, 20-5, a stretch during which there was no fire in their eyes. There was only that terrible feeling of a game slipping away and knowing it can’t be retrieved.

Toward the end, the 49ers had nothing left. Toler was called for traveling, then had the ball stolen.

Bonvicini sat back in her chair.

The clock ticked down to 0:00 and the scoreboard showed the numbing reality: Auburn 68, Long Beach 55.

“What are we going to do with all these people in Tacoma for two days?” Dan Barber wondered. The loss already had begun to sink in for him and the other boosters.

“I’m sad,” said booster Valerie Montgomery as she got up to go out into the rainy night. “I feel bad for the girls, it’s just a shame. But our ladies will be back (next year), and they are ladies.”

Bonvicini was red-faced and hoarse.

“Not the best game for TV,” she said, aware that both teams had shot less than 40% from the field. “People stereotype women’s basketball and I hate that, but we fit right in that stereotype tonight.”

Rebounding, as Bonvicini had predicted, had been the critical factor. Auburn out-rebounded the 49ers, 45-33.

“We could never get into our running game,” Bonvicini said.

She said she was not going to let the defeat spoil a 28-6 season: “I’m real resilient, I’m not going to (base) everything on one game.”

And then for the second year in a row she said: “We just have to go a step further next time.”

Life went on Saturday morning.

Toler, wearing a red tank-top in the hotel lobby and far from forlorn, said: “I didn’t have the best game in the world.”

She had scored 19 points but had made only 9 of 22 shots and committed 4 turnovers.

She said that when she returned from the game, she “went to the TV--I like that HBO.”

“I’m not the type that’s going to let one thing make or break the season,” Toler said.

She said she didn’t cry, and wouldn’t.

“I went through the deaths of my parents two years ago,” she said. “That stays with you awhile--I wasn’t even able to eat. Losing a basketball game doesn’t even compare.”

In a way she was relieved that basketball is over for a while.

“I have tests coming up in psychology and sociology,” Toler said. “I think my teachers understood I needed my time for basketball and now it’s my turn to pay off my debt and concentrate on school.”

The 49ers were spectators Sunday afternoon as Louisiana Tech defeated Auburn, 56-54, for the national title. Then they had to endure the sight of the wild celebration that ensued, knowing it could have been them cutting down the nets.

Guard Dana Wilkerson watched transfixed and said nothing.

Next to her was Toler, who wore the white warm-up suit she received for being named to the Kodak All-American Team. She was also named to the all-tournament team.

The boosters filed out, stopping to say, “Congratulations, Penny,” to their idol.

“Thanks, you guys, see you back in Long Beach, and see you here next year,” Toler said with a smile.

And the weekend didn’t seem so lost after all.