The No. 8 state-ranked Long Beach City College women's basketball team overcame a poor night shooting to come away with a 45-38 win over No. 18 Citrus College in the semifinals of the Grossmont College Holiday Classic.
Long Beach pushed its winning streak to eight games and is now 11-1 overall. The Vikings will look to capture their second tournament title of the season and face Santa Ana College in the Grossmont championship final at 4 p.m. on Sunday (Dec. 30).
Sophomore Talia Rayford (pictured) had game-highs of 16 points and 11 rebounds to lead Long Beach in Saturday's victory. Rayford made 4 of 7 shots from the field and was 8 for 10 from the free throw line while the Vikings as a team shot just 32 percent, making just 15 of 47 field goal attempts.
But that was enough to overcome an even worse shooting effort by Citrus, as the Owls sank just 13 of 53 shots for 25 percent.
The game was close until the Vikings pulled away for good midway in the second. Long Beach led 25-22 at halftime and held a narrow 30-28 lead at the 11:38 mark. But Rayford scored five straight points while Citrus missed its next 11 shots allowing LBCC to jump ahead 35-28.
With 4:22 left, Jasmine Longtin's jumper got Citrus within three points at 37-34, but LBCC freshman Shakeena Benton responded with a three-pointer at the 4:10 mark to put the game out of reach.
Freshman Jasmine Williams scored nine points, Benton had eight points, and freshman Crystal Cockerhan came off the bench to chip in with six points.
Olivia Montgomery and Sarah Rebibo both scored nine points to lead Citrus (10-4).
Photo by John Fajardo
