Sophomore guard Raynard Tyler scored a game-high 22 points to help lead the Long Beach City College men's basketball team to an 89-70 come-from-behind win over visiting Santa Ana College on Wednesday night at the LBCC Hall of Champions Gym.
Trailing 45-26 at halftime, the Vikings came out a different team in the second half, outscoring the Dons by a 63-25 margin.
LBCC trailed by as many as 22 points early in the second and was down 52-33 at the 18:48 mark before the Vikings rallied for 17 unanswered points to get within two at 52-50 with 14:09 to go.
A layup by Santa Ana's Kacy Barlow finally broke the Vikings' scoring run, but Long Beach answered with a jumper from sophomore Kristien Owens and a big three-point basket from freshman Tyler Tuliau to give LBCC a 55-54 lead with 12:14 remaining that it wouldn't give up for the rest of the contest.
Santa Ana got within four points (67-63) with 7:13 to go, but Long Beach put the game out of reach by outscoring the Dons 22-7 over the remainder of the game.
Long Beach played solid defense in the contest, forcing 26 turnovers and made minimal mistakes of its own with just eight turnovers.
Six different Vikings, including Tyler with 22, scored in double-figures in the win. Tuliau (11 points, 10 rebounds) and sophomore Jared Garber (10 points, 12 rebounds) both posted double-doubles. Owens poured in 12 points and freshman Brandon Moore chipped in with 11 points.
For Santa Ana (3-6), Barlow posted 17 points to go with seven rebounds. Chase Miller totaled 15 points off of 5 of 6 shooting from three-point range.
Long Beach improved to 3-9 overall. After dropping its first eight contests, LBCC has won three of its last four. The Vikings return to action on December 28 when they host West LA College in a 6 pm non-conference game.
Photo: Will Ervin and Tyler Tuliau pressure Santa Ana's Kryrie Armstrong in LBCC's 89-70 win over the Dons. Photo by John Fajardo
