The Long Beach City College women's basketball team continues its historic 2013-14 season on Saturday at 7 p.m. when the Vikings travel to No. 1 seed Ventura College for a fourth-round CCCAA Southern California Regional Playoff game.
Tickets for Saturday's CCCAA playoff game at VC's Athletic Events Center are $10 for general admission and $7 for students, faculty, staff, senior citizens over 60, and children under 12 years old. Fans that can't make the trip can listen to the game live online at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/women-s-basketball.
The winner of the regional final will advance to the CCCAA State Championships on March 14-16 at nearby Cerritos College. The Vikings will look to make the trip for the state tournament for the first time since 1988.
No. 5 seeded Long Beach (26-4 overall) is coming off a thrilling 64-62 win at No. 4 Pasadena City College on Wednesday in their third-round playoff matchup. Sophomore Shakeena Benton scored a game-high 27 points, including three crucial free throws over the final 10 seconds to secure the win.
Trailing 41-31 at halftime, the Vikings opened the second half outscoring Pasadena 16-2 to jump ahead 47-43. The teams traded leads throughout the second and with the scored tied at 59, freshman Abbey Goodsell's layup with 1:48 to play gave the Vikings the lead for good.
Sophomore Crystal Cockerhan posted a double-double with 12 points and 16 rebounds while Goodsell had 11 points and nine boards.
Ventura is coming off a 103-63 thrashing of No. 9 Orange Coast in its third-round game on Wednesday. The Pirates are 29-3 overall and captured their 24th consecutive Western State Conference championship. Ventura has won six state titles, its last coming in 2010.
Saturday marks the second meeting of the season between the Vikings and Pirates. On December 14 in the championship final of the LA Valley tournament, Ventura defeated then-No. 1 state-ranked Long Beach, 74-47. LBCC shot just 35 percent from the field (20-58) that game and made just 2 of 17 three-point attempts. The Vikings were also playing without Goodsell who was out with injury.
In the other Southern California Regional final, No. 2 Mt. San Antonio College hosts No. 3 LA Valley College. In the north, No. 1 San Joaquin Delta College hosts No. 4 Sierra College and No. 2 Fresno City College will face No. 3 Santa Rosa Junior College.