No. 5 Vikings travel to No. 4 Pasadena for third-round playoff matchup

A pair of South Coast Conference rivals will battle for the third time this season for the right to advance in the postseason. No. 5 seeded Long Beach City College will travel to No. 4 Pasadena City College for a third-round CCCAA Southern California Regional playoff game on Wednesday at 7 pm.

Tickets for tonight's CCCAA playoff game at PCC's Hutto-Patterson Gym are $10 for general admission and $7 for students, faculty, staff, senior citizens over 60, and children under 12 years old.

The winner of the contest advances to fourth round and will play the winner of No. 1 Ventura College and No. 9 Orange Coast College with a chance to move on to the State Championship Final Four.

Pasadena (22-7) was a 77-59 winner over No. 13 College of the Canyons on Saturday in its second-round playoff game. The Lancers finished second behind Mt. San Antonio College in the SCC North Division with a 10-3 record.

Long Beach enters tonight's game with a school-record 25-4 overall record. The Vikings have won six straight games and are coming off a 70-54 win over No. 12 Mt. San Jacinto College in Saturday's second-round playoff game.

Both games this season between the Vikings and Lancers have resulted in overtime thrillers. Unfortunately, Long Beach has come up on the losing end of both contests.

Game Recap: December 7, at Irvine Valley tournament championship final (69-64, Final)

The IVC tournament final featured a pair of the state's best as the Vikings entered the contest ranked No. 1 while Pasadena checked in at No. 7.

Long Beach trailed 31-19 at halftime against Pasadena, but used a late second-half comeback to force overtime. LBCC was down by 10 with five minute to go and was behind 52-47 with 1:12 left in the second.

A pair of free throws by freshman Abbey Goodsell (Orange Lutheran HS) with 33 seconds left got Long Beach within three and a jumper by sophomore Symphony Logan (Jordan HS) cut the deficit to one point at 54-53 with 16 seconds to go.

On the ensuing PCC possession, Desiree Loving made one of two free throws for the Lancers before LBCC sophomore Jasmine Williams was fouled with just six seconds remaining in regulation. She calmly sank both free throws to tie the contest and send the game to overtime.

But in the overtime period, a 6-0 run by Pasadena erased a 60-59 Long Beach advantage. Logan's jumper with 40 seconds left got the Vikings within three points at 65-62, but LBCC would get no closer.

Goodsell led the Vikings with 18 points in the loss while all-tournament team selection Shakeena Benton (Lakewood HS) had 15 points.

Game Recap: January 31 at LBCC (77-70, Final)

The South Coast Conference game in Long Beach was close throughout. Pasadena, ranked No. 5 in the state, held a narrow 33-27 advantage at halftime over the third-ranked Vikings.

The Lancers open the second outscoring Long Beach 8-3 to pull out a nine-point lead. But LBCC responded with a 15-2 run of its own to jump ahead 54-48 with eight minutes to play. Moments later, Pasadena put together a 13-2 run to once again move in front 61-56 with 3:30 to go in the second.

But back-to-back three-pointers from Goodsell and Benton retained the lead for Long Beach. Sophomore Crystal Cockerhan's (Poly HS) free throw with 41 seconds left extended LBCC's lead to 65-63. The Vikings had a chance to increase its advantage, but freshman Darshana Taafua (Western HS) missed a pair of free throws with 18 seconds remaining before PCC's Tyler Crockom's layup tied the game with just seven seconds left.

Long Beach had one last just chance to pull out the win in regulation, but Benton's layup attempt with two seconds left rimed out.

In overtime, Long Beach went cold and made just 2 of 11 field goal attempts and Pasadena outscored the Vikings 12-5 to secure the victory.

Benton scored a game-high 21 points while Cockerhan had a double-double with 10 points and 16 rebounds.