UC Irvine senior guard Moulayna Johnson Sidi Baba listened carefully to the instructions her coach gave her before their Big West Tournament semifinal.
“She told me to go out and get a double-double,” Sidi Baba said, “and that’s what I did. I want to win, so I do whatever the coach wants me to do, I’ll do it.”
So, she did just that.
Sidi Baba scored a game-high 22 points and grabbed a team-best 10 rebounds to lead the second-seeded Anteaters to a 69-57 victory over No. 7 seed Long Beach State on Friday afternoon at the Dollar Loan Center in Henderson, Nevada. The win secured the Anteaters a spot in the championship game for the first time since 2022 and the fifth time in program history.
UCI (22-8) will face No. 5 UC Davis in Saturday’s 3 p.m. championship game. The Aggies (20-13) upset top-seeded Hawai’i, 51-48, in the other semifinal and will be trying to win their fourth game in four days when they take on the Anteaters with a berth in the NCAA Tournament at stake.
UCI coach Tamara Inoue said her team will need to replicate the style of play it showed against Long Beach to have any hope of reaching the NCAA Tournament for just the second time in program history (a lopsided first-round loss to Stanford in 1995).
“I think it’s important to set the tone and get out there and get us a comfortable lead,” Inoue said. “We need to be feeling it and seeing the ball go in the basket and then replicating it. Same thing we did today.”
After giving up the first two baskets of the game, the Anteaters went on a 20-5 run to take control of the game in the early going. Long Beach struggled to mount any type of offense against UCI’s defense, which ranks 14th nationally with 55.5 points allowed per game.
Trailing, 24-19, LBSU took advantage of a rare UCI defensive lapse to go on a 10-3 run, capped by a layup by Jada Crawshaw, and take its first lead since the opening minutes at 28-27 with 4:01 left in the half.
“I thought in the second quarter we loosened up a little bit and let them drive by us, go by us and get easy layups,” Inoue said. “So, going back to that zone really helped contain them, slowed them down.”
Sidi Baba, who shot 9 for 15 from the field, said that’s when she recalled the coach’s orders.
“I was thinking that we need a win and I have to do what I can do to get a win,” she said. “That’s what I think about on the court.”
Sidi Baba scored 11 points in the second half as the Anteaters never allowed the Beach to threaten again. They limited Long Beach to 36.4% shooting from the field and 30% from 3-point range.
“I think their defense was really, really solid,” first-year LBSU coach Amy Wright said. “They stuck with what they do well, they run that 2-2-1 and fall back into their man(-to-man).
“They did an outstanding job being physical with us in both areas – on the perimeter and in the paint. So just congrats to them.”
UCI’s Deja Lee, named the Big West Player of the Year earlier this week, finished with 12 points on 5-of-12 shooting despite foul trouble. Nevaeh Parkinson contributed eight points and eight rebounds before fouling out.
Long Beach was led by Casey Valenti-Paea, who scored 13 points and Sydney Woodley, who had 12 points and six rebounds. LBSU was outrebounded 40-30 and had 15 turnovers and just six assists.
“They are fine-tuning everything to a T to get to the NCAA Tournament,” Wright said of UCI. “Irvine did it to us. We didn’t do it to ourselves, which is the first time I’ve said that all year.”
No. 2 UC IRVINE (22-8) VS. No. 5 UC DAVIS (20-13)
What: Big West Women’s Tournament title game
When: Saturday, 3 p.m.
Where: Dollar Loan Center, Henderson, Nev.
How to watch: ESPN+