Desiree Loving scored 6 of her team-high 20 pts in overtime, after Tyler Crockom tied the score with a lay-up with about 7 seconds left in regulation time to lead #4 Pasadena to a hard-fought 77-70 victory over host #2 Long Beach City Friday night at the Hall of Champions.
Loving showed she is a hard-nosed point guard, both literally and figuratively, coming back after taking a hard shot to her nose that left her bloody 5:22 into the game. She returned about 6 minutes later and seemed none the worse for wear, finishing with 20 pts, 9 rebs, 5 asts and 3 steals for the night.
And it was a rugged, intense, playoff-type game from start to finish, with neither team leading by more than 9 points at any point in the game. Not that this was a surprise as both teams entered the night ranked among the top 4 teams in the state of California.
Pasadena (18-5, 7-1) opened a 5-point lead at 22-17 midway through the first half. Long Beach rallied to tie the score at 23 after a 3-pointer by Abbey Goodsell, but Loving's 3-point play gave Pasadena another 5-point lead at 28-23. Kiara Phillips drained a 3-pointer in the final seconds of the first half to give Pasadena a 33-27 lead at the break.
Pasadena extended its lead to 9 points at 43-34 after Loving made a short jumper with 15:15 left in the second half. But that lead would turn out not only to be the largest lead of the game for either team, but would prove to be short-lived as Long Beach (19-4, 6-2) went on a 20-5 run to take a 54-48 lead with 8:55 left in regulation time. Shakeena Benton had 6 points and 3 assists during the run to spark Long Beach.
Pasadena answered with an 11-0 run to take a 61-56 lead with 3:35 left. But Long Beach got back-to-back 3-pointers from Goodsell and Benton to go ahead, 62-61, with 1:48 left. Loving gave Pasadena a lead with two free throws with 1:27 to go, but Benton made a short jumper with just over a minute left to give Long Beach a 64-63 lead. Crystal Cockerhan added a free throw with 40 seconds left to make it 65-63.
Pasadena's Skai Thompson missed a jumper that would have tied the score, and fouled the rebounder, Long Beach's Darshana Taafua, with 18.6 seconds left. But Taafua missed both resulting free throw attempts, giving Pasadena another chance to tie the score. And Crockom did just that with a driving lay-up with just over 7 seconds left in regulation time.
But in overtime, Loving gave Pasadena the lead with a steal & lay-up with about 4 minutes left, and Pasadena led the rest of the way. Loving scored on a floater to make it 69-66, and Crockom's free throw with 2:12 left make it a 4-point game at 72-68. Then Crockom scored off a pass from Bailey Williams with 46.3 seconds left to make it 74-68. She added a free throw following a rebound with 21.9 seconds left to make it 75-68.
Long Beach got a lay-up from Benton to cut the deficit to five points, and forced a turnover on the ensuing inbounds play to get the ball back with 15.6 seconds remaining. But Loving stole the inbounds pass, dribbled for a few seconds before being fouled, and added 2 free throws with 6.8 seconds left to finally clinch the win for Pasadena.
Loving led Pasadena with her 20 pts. Phillips had 18 pts, and Crockom had 14 pts plus a team-high 12 rebs and a game-high 6 asts. 6-4 Center Kaitlyn Parks had 7 pts, 10 rebs, 3 blocks and 3 steals, but left the game with an apparent leg injury 16 seconds into overtime.
For Long Beach, Benton had a game-high 21 pts, including 3 three-pointers, and dished out 4 asts. Goodsell had 19 pts, including 5 threes, plus 5 rebs, 4 asts and 3 steals. Cockerhan had 10 pts plus game-highs of 17 rebs and 7 blocked shots. Jasmine Williams had 7 pts, 5 rebs and a team-high 5 asts before fouling out with 2:23 left in regulation time.
box score
Friday, January 31, 2014 - 5 pm
at the LBCC Hall of Champions, Long Beach
South Coast Conference - Women
Pasadena 77:
1-Desiree Loving, PG - 7/13 fg, 6/9 ft, 9 reb, 5 ast, 3 stl, 4 pf, 20 pts
22-Skai Thompson, SG - 2/10 fg, 2 reb, 2 ast, 5 pf, 5 pts
33-Tyler Crockom, PF - 2/9 fg, 10/15 ft, 12 reb, 6 ast, 2 stl, 14 pts
34-Kiara Phillips, SF - 6/15 fg, 5/5 ft, 3 reb, 3 ast, 2 stl, 3 pf, 18 pts
40-Kaitlyn Parks, C - 3/9 fg, 1/4 ft, 10 reb, 3 blk, 3 stl, 1 pf, 7 pts
10-Joelle Tucker, G - 2/4 fg, 1 reb, 2 ast, 2 stl, 4 pts
15-Brandi DuBose, F - 2/5 fg, 1/2 ft, 7 reb, 1 blk, 4 pf, 5 pts
11-Bailey Williams, C - 2/3 fg, 0/1 ft, 4 reb, 1 ast, 1 blk, 1 stl, 4 pf, 4 pts
20-Tyler Polk, F - 0 pt
25-Averie-Alice Guzman, F - 0 pts
12-Kandace Payne, F - 0/2 ft, 0 pts
5-Emily Thach, G - 1 pf, 0 pts
team rebounds: 7
Totals: 26/69 fg (.383), 23/38 ft (.605), 55 reb, 19 ast, 5 blk, 13 stl, 22 pf, 77 pts
3-pt fg (2): Thompson, Phillips
Fouled Out: Thompson 18.6 secs left in regulation
Turnovers (21): Phillips 5, Loving 3, Thompson 3, DuBose 3, Tucker 2, Polk 2, Crockom, Williams, team
Long Beach 70:
1-Abbey Goodsell, SF - 7/16 fg, 5 reb, 4 ast, 3 stl, 2 pf, 19 pts
3-Shakeena Benton, SG - 7/19 fg, 4/5 ft, 3 reb, 4 ast, 1 pf, 21 pts
4-Jasmine Williams, PG - 3/5 fg, 1/5 ft, 5 reb, 5 ast, 5 pf, 7 pts
12-Crystal Cockerhan, C - 3/10 fg, 4/6 ft, 17 reb, 7 blk, 4 pf, 10 pts
44-Darshana Taafua, PF - 3/8 fg, 0/3 ft, 10 reb, 1 ast, 1 blk, 3 pf, 7 pts
15-Antoinette Davis, F - 0/3 fg, 2 reb, 1 stl, 4 pf, 0 pts
31-Symphony Logan, F - 1/13 fg, 0/2 ft, 8 reb, 2 ast, 1 blk, 3 pf, 2 pts
11-Jasmine Avalos, G - 0/4 fg, 1/2 ft, 2 reb, 1 ast, 1 pf, 1 pt
24-Dana Arrington, C - 2 reb, 0 pts
32-Dentinn Romain, F - 1/3 fg, 2 reb, 3 pts
team rebounds: 4
Totals: 25/81 fg (.309), 10/23 ft (.435), 60 reb, 17 ast, 9 blk, 7 stl, 23 pf, 70 pts
3-pt fg (10): Goodsell 5, Benton 3, Taafua, Romain
Technical Foul: team (administrative - pregame)
Fouled Out: Williams 2:23 left in regulation
Turnovers (24): Williams 6, Taafua 4, Avalos 4, Goodsell 3, Benton 3, Cockerhan, Davis, Logan, team
Halftime Score: Psasadena 33, Long Beach 27
End of Regulation: Tied at 65
Updated Records: Pasadena (#4-South, #5-Calif) 18-5, 7-1 in SCC; Long Beach (#2-South, #3-Calif) 19-4, 6-2 in SCC
Crockom scored with 7 seconds left in regulation to send it to OT.
Loving scored the 1st 4 points of OT and clinched the win for PCC with a steal & 2 FTs with 6.8 secs left in OT.
