Women's Basketball: LBCC suffers first loss, 65-51 to Moorpark at SAC tourney

The No. 13 state-ranked Long Beach City College women's basketball team suffered its first loss of the season, a 65-51 defeat to Moorpark College on Friday night in the semifinals of the Santa Ana College tournament.

Long Beach, now 3-1, will play for third place on Saturday at 2 p.m. against either host Santa Ana or Merced College.

Friday's contest was close early as the Vikings held a narrow 21-20 lead at the 5:06 mark in the first after a jumper by sophomore Tiffany Taylor. But Moorpark put together an 11-0 run over the next three and a half minutes and closed out the first half outscoring LBCC 14-2 to take a commanding 34-23 advantage into the break.

The Vikings could get no closer than 10 points in the second half.

Long Beach shot just 32 percent (20 for 63) from the field from the game and was outrebounded 44-33 by Moorpark (5-1). Sophomore Talia Rayford (pictured) led LBCC with 14 points and five steals while sophomore Kaaron King added 13 points to go along with a team-high nine rebounds.

Photo by Chris Ruiz