Women's Basketball: No. 12 Long Beach handles Pasadena at home, 74-42

Freshman Charmaine Nelson (pictured) posted 18 points and 13 rebounds, while freshman Luna Amico also poured in 18 points to help lead the No. 12 state-ranked Long Beach City College women's basketball team to a convincing 74-42 South Coast Conference win over visiting Pasadena City College on Friday night.

The win improved the Vikings to 14-4 overall and 6-3 in the SCC while Pasadena dropped to 10-11 and 4-5 in conference play.

Long Beach stormed out to a 13-3 lead and never looked back. A 9-0 run by the Vikings, sparked by a pair of buckets by freshman Symphony Logan, a layup by freshman Toynell Williams, and a big three-pointer from sophomore Tamica Cheatham, gave Long Beach a commanding 39-22 advantage with 3:16 to go in the opening half.

Pasadena narrowed the gap, but LBCC led 39-27 at halftime before the Lancers shooting went cold in the second half. Pasadena made just 15 of 72 shots in the game and shot a terrible 5 for 34 over the final 20 minutes.

The Vikings effectively put the game out of reach with a 14-0 run midway through the second. Freshman guard Luna Amico buried a pair of three-pointers and LBCC led 60-33 with 12 minutes to go in the second half.

Cheatham posted 10 points for Long Beach and Logan added eight points.

Marquetta Stokes and Stella Ghazarian both scored 10 points to lead Pasadena.

Long Beach returns to action on Wednesday (Jan 25) when it travels to East Los Angeles College for a 5 pm SCC game.

Photo by John Fajardo