Long Beach State, Santa Barbara Reach Final

Everything came together for Long Beach State Friday against Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in the Big West Conference women’s basketball tournament.

The 49ers combined strong defense with 54.4% field-goal shooting for a 93-68 victory in the semifinal round at the Anaheim Convention Center.

Second-seeded Long Beach (17-12) will play No. 1-seeded UC Santa Barbara at 1 p.m. today for the championship.

“We didn’t play that same team before this season,” Cal Poly Coach Faith Mimnaugh said. “They were a lot more aggressive than we were. They played like champions.”

The teams had split two regular-season meetings, with the Mustangs winning the most recent game by 10 points, but Long Beach took control of this one with a 15-0 run in the first half. The 49ers led, 43-32, at halftime.

“We finally played our game against them,” Long Beach Coach Dallas Bolla said. “The last time we played them, we had six assists. This time we had 28. Our guards did a good job.”

Junior forward Ekuah Ramsey led the 49ers with 24 points. Senior Jackie Moore, the conference player of the year, had 21 points, and junior guard Tamara Inoue had 12 points and seven assists. Guard Odessa Jenkins led the Mustangs (12-17) with 15 points.

“I thought Jackie Moore played an outstanding game,” Mimnaugh said. “Moore is an awesome athlete. I think she has a great future in professional basketball.”

Long Beach’s fastbreak was particularly effective.

“We weren’t getting any offensive rebounds, and we couldn’t stop their transition game,” Jenkins said. “It was one shot for us, and they were off and running.”

Long Beach has lost 17 consecutive games to Santa Barbara, including the finals of the last two conference tournaments. Santa Barbara, which has won four consecutive tournament titles, defeated Long Beach, 86-80 and 80-70, in the regular season.