Idaho Eliminates Long Beach State at Buzzer

Long Beach State’s plans of getting to the final of the Big West Conference women’s tournament, then trying to dethrone defending champion UC Santa Barbara disappeared in 2.3 seconds Friday.

That’s all the time Idaho’s 5-foot-11 forward Emily Faurholt needed to catch a lob pass thrown over Long Beach’s 6-6 center Petra Glaser and sink a 10-foot jump shot at the buzzer to give the Vandals (19-10) a dramatic 69-67 semifinal victory before 1,146 at the Anaheim Convention Center.

Idaho moves on to play Santa Barbara in today’s championship game. The Vandals were the only team to beat the Gauchos in regular-season conference play, and did it twice.

“This is what makes the postseason so special -- that when you lose, you’re done,” Idaho Coach Mike Divilbiss said. “I was fighting the urge all day [of] what to say if our season ended. And it kept popping in my head that our season’s not ending.”

Faurholt, who finished with 35 points, was the last person Long Beach wanted to have the ball. But that wasn’t the only malfunction by the 49ers (19-9), who had the ball in the final 18 seconds with the score tied, at 67-67.

Long Beach fumbled the ball away, and it rolled out of bounds at Idaho’s end of the floor, setting up Faurholt’s heroics. Idaho guard Leilani Mitchell “got me the ball and then I just drove,” Faurholt said. “I didn’t do anything that spectacular.”

Long Beach Coach Mary Hegarty said: “This wasn’t how we expected our season to end ... but we got sloppy down the stretch. And in a matter of a few seconds it pretty much got away from us.”

Senior guard Aisha Hollans led Long Beach with 22 points.

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Santa Barbara 79, Cal State Northridge 67 -- If the Gauchos were feeling any pressure in defending the title, it never showed.

Santa Barbara (20-8) came out firing in the first semifinal, made 55.4% of its shots and swept aside Northridge (18-11) in game that wasn’t as close as the final score. Mia Fisher made nine of 10 shots and led four Gaucho players in double figures with 20 points. Kristen Mann, the conference player of the year, added 19 points and 10 rebounds.

Northridge junior forward Ofa Tulikihihifo led all scorers with 24, but scored half of her points after Santa Barbara had taken control.