Oct. 2, 2011

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LONG BEACH - The Long Beach State women's basketball team officially kicked off the 2011-12 season with their first practice Sunday evening at the West Gym/Gold Mine.

"It was great to see all 13 players on the court together for the first time," 49er head coach Jody Wynn said. "There was a lot of spirit, and a lot of positive attitudes and actions in the gym."

LBSU held a three-hour session in their first practice as an entire team. After warming up for about 20 minutes, the players and coaches met at half court for a quick pep talk from Wynn. The 49ers then went into full-court layup drills before breaking up into groups for shooting drills.

Long Beach State also went over transition, taking charges, boxing out and defensive movement before beginning a 3-on-3 drill. LBSU ended practice with a 10-minute scrimmage against its practice players.

"I think the effort was there from start to finish," Wynn said. "As long as the effort is there then we will continue to make progress everyday."

Wynn has a young but talented squad in her third season at the helm of the 49er women's basketball program. With nine underclassmen on the roster, she welcomes back four letterwinners and three redshirts, while bringing in six newcomers.

Leading the way will be senior Tipesa Moorer, who is the team's top returning scorer after averaging 7.7 points per game last year. Sophomore Ella Clark will also look to build off a solid freshman campaign in which she averaged 6.7 points and 4.1 rebounds per outing.

Long Beach State opens the season at home against Utah Valley on Nov. 11 before hitting the road for the next three weeks with trips to Syracuse (Nov. 13) and Washington (Dec. 4) included in that span. The 49ers then return to the Walter Pyramid to host the Beach Classic Presented by Residence Inn/Courtyard Marriott in their final preparations for Big West Conference play, which gets underway on Dec. 29.