No. 5 state-ranked Long Beach City College erased a four-point, fourth-quarter deficit to pull out a 47-43 South Coast Conference interdivision win over visiting Pasadena City College on Wednesday night at the Hall of Champions Gym. The victory improved the Vikings to 14-2 overall this season.
Thanks to nine early turnovers, Long Beach jumped out to an 11-3 lead over the Lancers with four minutes to play in the first quarter. Pasadena went on to outscore LBCC 9-2 to go into the second down by one at 13-12.
From that point, the two squads exchanged leads before heading to the fourth quarter tied 33-33. Pasadena went ahead 37-33 and was up 39-35 at the 8:45 mark. But freshman Sopavy Seng (Poly HS) got the rally started with a bi three-pointer before sophomore Lupe Cruz' (South East HS) layup put the Vikings back out in from 40-39 with five minutes to go.
PCC's Ilianna Blanc gave the Lancers back the lead briefly with her layup at the 4:21 mark. But on Long Beach's next trip down the court, Seng nailed another three-pointer to give the Vikings the lead for good, 43-41 with four minutes left in the contest. LBCC outscored Pasadena 12-4 over the final seven minutes to secure the victory.
Long Beach shot just 29 percent from the field for the game, but was able to convert 33 Pasadena turnovers into 27 points. Seng led LBCC with eight points while Cruz posted six points and five rebounds. Freshman Ayerjenee Jeanmard (Poly HS) dished out six assists to go with four points.
Chy'Annea Hodges scored a game-high 10 points for Pasadena (9-8). Blanc added eight points and seven rebounds.
Long Beach returns to action on Friday (Jan. 8) when the Vikings travel to East Los Angeles College for a 5 p.m. SCC interdivision game.
