The No. 7 state-ranked Long Beach City College women's basketball team bounced back from its narrow loss to top-ranked Mt. SAC last Friday with a big 81-29 South Coast Conference win over visiting El Camino College Compton Center on Wednesday night at the LBCC Hall of Champions Gym.

With the win, Long Beach improved to 13-2 overall and 3-1 in conference play.

Freshman Shakeena Benton scored LBCC's first 10 points of the game as the Vikings jumped out to a quick 10-0 lead and never looked back.

The lopsided win could have been much worse had it not been for an ugly first half shooting for the Vikings. LBCC made just 15 of 55 shots (27 percent) over the first 20 minutes but still led 37-14 at halftime.

Long Beach broke the game open with a 21-0 run early in the second half to take a commanding 60-18 lead with nine minutes left in the game.

Benton scored a game-high 24 points and had four steals for Long Beach. Freshman Crystal Cockerhan (pictured) had a big game off the bench with 15 points, 19 rebounds, four blocks, and four steals. Sophomore Kaaron King also chipped in with a double-double of 13 points and 13 rebounds to go with seven steals.

Compton (0-11, 0-5 SCC) committed 53 turnovers and made just 11 of 44 field goals for the contest. Mykell Trunell led Compton with 12 points while Malaysia Lashaul had 14 rebounds.

Long Beach returns to action on Friday (Jan 11) when it travels to El Camino College for a 7 p.m. SCC game.

Photo by John Fajardo