Women’s Basketball: Long Beach claims second tournament championship, beat IVC 46-40 in final

The Long Beach City College women's basketball team extended its winning streak to seven games after going 3-0 over the weekend to capture the Irvine Valley College Tournament championship. The Vikings defeated host Irvine Valley in Saturday's final to earn their second tournament championship of the season.

Long Beach, ranked No. 5 in the state and No. 3 in Southern California, improved to 9-1 overall. LBCC's lone loss came to No. 1 state-ranked Mt. San Antonio College in the championship final of the Mt. SAC tourney earlier this season.

The Vikings opened tournament play on Thursday with a 63-58 win over Chaffey College (7-5). After a close first quarter, LBCC used a 10-2 run in the second to erase a one-point Chaffey lead and jump out in front for good.

Sophomore Christiana Layne (Lynwood HS) came off the bench to score a team-high 10 points thanks to a perfect 5 for 5 shooting effort. Sophomore Lupe Cruz (South East HS) led the Vikings with 11 rebounds to go with six points.

LBCC came back the next night with an 88-49 rout of Riverside City College (8-4) on Friday. The Vikings jumped out to a 23-13 lead after the first quarter and never looked back. The 88 points for Long Beach was a season high.

Four Vikings scored in double figures. Freshman Paris Lucci (Palos Verdes Peninsula HS) was big off the bench, scoring a team-high 16 points. Freshman Sopavy Seng (Poly HS) scored 14 points, Cruz added 12 while sophomore Taylor Smith (Redondo Union HS) chipped in with 10. Freshman Miranda Martinez (El Dorado HS) also had a big game underneath the basket for LBCC as she totaled three blocks and five rebounds to go with seven points.

Long Beach closed out the weekend with a narrow 46-40 win over host IVC (7-3) in Saturday's final. LBCC led Irvine Valley 24-18 at halftime and held the Lasers to just nine points in each of the first three quarters before holding off a fourth-quarter IVC rally.

The Vikings were up 40-31 with seven minutes to play after a layup by sophomore Imani Johnson (Carson HS). But a three-pointer by IVC's Tara Casey capped a 7-2 run by the Lasers to get them within four points at 42-38 with 1:55 to go in the fourth. Leading 44-40, Cruz grabbed an offensive rebound and scored the put-back basket with 30 seconds left to secure the victory.

Layne had a game-high 12 rebounds to go with three blocks and six points in the final on her way to being named the IVC tournament most valuable player. Cruz added 10 points and nine rebounds while Seng had 11 points.

Lucci was also named to the All-Tournament team.

Long Beach returns to action on December 22 when the Vikings host West Los Angeles College in their home opener at 3 p.m.