Women's Basketball: No. 10 Long Beach knocks off No. 8 Pasadena 71-57

Freshman Jasmine Williams (pictured) scored 18 points, freshman Shakeena Benton added 17 points, and sophomore Talia Rayford posted nine points and 13 rebounds to help lead the No. 10 state-ranked Long Beach City College women's basketball team to a 71-57 South Coast Conference win over visiting No. 8 state-ranked Pasadena City College on Wednesday night at the LBCC Hall of Champions Gym.

The win was the Vikings' sixth straight and improved their record to 9-1 overall and 2-0 in conference play.

Long Beach was able to convert 25 Pasadena turnovers into 30 points and held the Lancers to just 18 of 46 shooting for the contest. The Vikings also outrebounded PCC by a 37-26 margin.

The scored remained close early before a layup by Rayford capped a 7-1 run by the Vikings to give them their largest lead of the first half (21-14) at the 5:56 mark.

But Pasadena's Sabrina Martinez and Stella Ghazarian sank three-pointers over the final minutes of the half and Shay Jackson made a pair of free throws with under a minute left to tie up the game 30-30 before halftime. 

Long Beach came out firing to start the second half with a 7-2 run. Benton nailed a three-pointer while Williams and sophomore Kaaron King picked up baskets in the paint to fuel the surge. Long Beach went on to outscore Pasadena 19-5 over the first six and a half minutes off the second to basically put the game out of reach.

Leading 56-37, the Vikings appeared to be on their way to a blow out win, but PCC got a layup from Kaitlyn Parks and back-to-back three-pointers by Ghazarian to cut LBCC's lead to 58-45 with 8:10 to go.

The Lancers would get no closer. King's layup with 1:01 remaining put Long Beach ahead 69-56 before Williams closed out the scoring with a pair of free throws with 16 seconds left to cap the victory.

Sophomore Kyrese Montgomery chipped in with nine points and King added eight second-half points.

Pasadena (8-2, 0-1 SCC) was led by Ghazarian and Parks with 12 points. Desiree Loving added 10 points and six assists.

Long Beach returns to action on December 28-30 when it competes at the Grossmont College tournament. The Vikings are back home on January 4 at 5 pm when it hosts Mt. San Antonio College in another SCC showdown.

Photo by John Fajardo