The Vikings postseason run came to a crashing halt following No. 8 Long Beach City College's 92-73 loss to No. 13 East Los Angeles College in Round 4 of the Southern California Regional Playoffs on Saturday at LBCC's Hall of Champions Gym.
The Vikings came just one victory short of advancing to the State Championships for the first time since 2006 and ended with a 23-7 overall record. But it was an impressive season for Long Beach as the Vikings won their second consecutive South Coast Conference South Division championship and reached the postseason for the third time in six seasons under SCC South Coach of the Year Barry Barnes.
Long Beach raced out to an 11-2 lead to open the contest but had to rally late in the first to go into halftime with a 44-42 lead.
In the second, the Vikings and Huskies exchanged leads and baskets. Sophomore guard Brandon Staton's (Poly HS) three-pointer at the 14:15 mark extended the Vikings' lead to 60-55.
But from that point, Long Beach went ice cold. LBCC was scoreless for nearly seven minutes and didn't make another field goal until freshman Michael Schivers' (Hannibal, MO) three-pointer with 2:45 left in the contest. By then, East Los Angeles had put the game out of reach at 80-67. LBCC made just 7 of 25 field goal attempts in the second and was outscored by a 50-29 margin.
Staton did all he could to keep Long Beach in the ball game, scoring 13 of his game-high 29 points in the second half. He closed his LBCC career with a double-double as he added 10 rebounds.
Sophomore Elijah Gaines (San Pedro HS) added 12 points while sophomore Chris Spencer (Jordan HS) nearly had a double-double with nine points and nine rebounds. Shiver chipped in with 13 points.
