The archives will show the UC Irvine women’s basketball team won its first Big West Conference regular-season title in 2023.
Long Beach State coach Jeff Cammon will look back at this season through a different lens.
Long Beach (22-8 overall, 17-3 Big West) posted more conference victories than UCI this season, but the Anteaters (24-5, 16-2) were awarded their first regular-season title in program history based on a better winning percentage.
UCI played two fewer conference games than LBSU this season after canceling matchups last month against UC Davis and Cal Poly because its roster was depleted by injuries. The conference ruled the games no-contests, rather than forfeits.
“I don’t care what anybody says, we earned it on the court,” Cammon said. “It’s very disappointing that it comes down to this.”
Cammon, who was named the Big West Coach of the Year on Monday, said injuries are common in women’s basketball and most teams had to play short-handed at some point during the season, including Long Beach.
“We’ve been without our best players on numerous occasions,” he said. “When I was here as an assistant, there were two or three years where we had seven (players), with four starters out, but we never even thought about not playing. It’s why we’re here.”
By winning the regular-season title, the Anteaters are also the top-seeded team for the Big West Tournament that begins Tuesday afternoon at Dollar Loan Center in Henderson, Nevada and concludes with the championship game on Saturday afternoon.
UCI opens play Wednesday at noon against the winner of a game between 8th-seeded Cal State Northridge (7-23, 6-14) and No. 9 Cal State Bakersfield (6-22, 3-17).
The Anteaters won their final seven games, including their last four without three starters because of knee injuries. Hunter Hernandez was leading the team in scoring (12.0) when she went down against UCSB on Feb. 15. The sophomore guard scored 19 points in a 52-50 loss to Long Beach…
Read the full article here
