Long Beach Has the Stats, but Texas Has the Status

AUSTIN, Tex. —  Let’s examine the facts. Top-ranked Texas, the host school for the women’s basketball tournament, returns to defend its title and has been to the NCAA Final Four twice. Tennessee has made it for the fourth time and Louisiana Tech for the third.

So what would make anyone think Cal State Long Beach might possibly win it all in its first try?

“Beginner’s luck,” said Penny Toler, the 49ers’ irrepressible point guard.

She was only kidding, of course. The reality is that fourth-ranked Long Beach, the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. champion with a 33-2 record, would appear to have a very good chance to win the national championship, and it has nothing to do with luck.

It has to do with the facts.

The 49ers, who will play seventh-ranked Tennessee in one semifinal today (ESPN, 4 p.m. PST) at the sold-out Erwin Center, lead the nation in scoring average and winning margin, and have both Cindy Brown and Toler averaging more than 21 points a game.

They have topped the 100-point mark 15 times, setting an NCAA record and, with their free-wheeling style of play, have been compared to the Nevada Las Vegas men’s team, a comparison no one seems to mind.

“I haven’t seen anyone quite as explosive as we expect Long Beach to be,” Tennessee Coach Pat Summitt said.

Before they can pull a fast one on the underdog Volunteers, however, the 49ers need the ball. Rebounding, the teams agree, will be the key to deciding which team will play again Sunday for the title, against either Texas or Louisiana Tech.

Just the challenge an All-American forward such as Brown would look forward to, right?

“If they’re bigger, I’ll stay away defensively,” Brown said. “I don’t like that physical play inside. Offensively, I hope they respect me the same way. If they stay too close, I’ll go right around them.”

Tennessee, 26-6, figures to start 5-foot 10-inch Melissa McCray and 6-0 Bridgette Gordon as forwards, and 6-2 Kathy Spinks at center. Summitt also has 6-4 Sheila Frost, 6-3 Carla McGhee, 6-3 Cheryl Littlejohn and 6-2 Karla Horton on the bench.

Long Beach will counter with its usual front line of Brown, the nation’s third-leading scorer at 27.9 points a game, 6-1 Cheryl Dowell and 6-3 Shannon Smith, with 6-6 Lisa Ellis one of the top reserves.

Gordon, a sophomore, leads Tennessee in scoring with 16.4 points a game, including a career-high 33 in the Mideast Regional final over Auburn. In the year of the juggled lineup, the Volunteers’ second- and third-leading scorers, Frost at 11.4 and Horton at 9.9, will come off the bench.

This would seem to be no place for a 5-8 guard.

“I’m going to sit back and watch them knock each other’s heads off,” said Toler, who averages 21.8 points a game.

If so, she will have the best seat in the house for what should be an interesting match-up. Tennessee knows Long Beach and its run-and-shoot offense and Long Beach knows Tennessee, at least through a mutual friend.

The Ohio State team the 49ers beat by 20 points last Saturday at Pauley Pavilion for the West Regional title is almost a carbon copy of the Volunteers when it comes to strategy. That comes from Buckeye Coach Nancy Darsch’s having spent seven years as an assistant at Tennessee, but she couldn’t begin to offer the bench strength that Summitt has.

Beyond that, there is the past to contend with. Long Beach had fallen short of the Final Four several times, and Tennessee is still looking for its first NCAA title. The Volunteers are 1-3 after advancing to the semifinals.

“It’s not important at all right now,” Summitt said. “A lot of people say, ‘Oh, sure, Pat,’ but one of these days Tennessee is going to win the national championship. But right now the one thing that is foremost in my mind, the only thing this team needs to be concerned with, is Long Beach.”

Similarly, the outcome of the Texas-Louisiana Tech will depend on rebounding. In fact, to hear Longhorn Coach Jody Conradt tell it, if Tech can wreck Texas on the boards, the No. 1 team in the nation will be absent from its own party Sunday.

“If we let them dominate us on the boards, we will not win the game,” she said.