No. 11 state-ranked Long Beach City College suffered a 65-43 South Coast Conference loss to  No. 2 Mt. San Antonio College on Wednesday night at the LBCC Hall of Champions Gym.

Long Beach dropped to 10-3 overall and 2-2 in the SCC while Mt. SAC moved to 12-2 overall and 4-0 in conference play.

Long Beach caught Mt. SAC off guard, opening the game with a 4-0 lead after a layup from freshman Charmaine Nelson and a steal and fastbreak bucket from freshman Keshonda Moore. But the Mounties calmly responded with a 10-0 run over the next four minutes and never looked back.

Mt. SAC led 29-20 at halftime before outscoring LBCC 36-23 in the second. The Mounties pounded the ball underneath, scoring 40 points in the paint and added 21 second-chance points thanks to 23 offensive rebounds.

Poor shooting kept the Vikings out of the game throughout the night. Long Beach made just 17 of 66 field goals and was 0 for 8 from three-point range.

Nelson led the Vikings with nine points. Moore added nine points and three steals.

Danielle Peacon led the Mounties with 15 points and 11 rebounds. Morgan Mason added 15 points and nine rebounds.

The Vikings return to action on January 4 when they host Cerritos College in a 5 pm conference game.

Photo: Sophomore Kala Amico drives towards the basket in the Vikings' 65-43 loss to Mt. San Antonio. Photo by John Fajardo