The Long Beach City College women's basketball team opened up the season by going 2-1 at the Mt. San Antonio College Tip-Off Tournament. The Vikings picked up wins over College of the Canyons and Saddleback College before losing to host Mt. SAC in the tournament championship final.
LBCC opened the season and tourney with a 62-53 victory over Canyons. The Vikings trailed 20-11 after the first quarter but went on to outscore the Cougars 34-23 in the second half to pull out the win.
Freshman Sopavy Seng (Poly HS) led the Vikings with 11 points, including five in LBCC's 21-point third quarter. Sophomore Taylor Smith (Redondo Union HS) came off the bench to total eight points and seven rebounds while sophomore Kayla Sii (Lakewood HS) had seven points and five rebounds.
The Vikings came back on Saturday to defeat Saddleback 65-40. LBCC led 24-23 at halftime before outscoring Saddleback 19-4 in the third quarter to put the game out of reach.
Freshman Miranda Martinez (El Dorado HS) scored a game-high 18 points in the Vikings' rout while freshman Paris Lucci (Palos Verdes Peninsula HS) came off the bench to score 12 points. Long Beach dominated the Gauchos on the boards by a 54-35 margin, including a team-high eight from freshman Kendria Rendon (Cabrillo HS).
Long Beach got an early-season test, facing the No. 1 Southern California ranked Mounties in the tourney final. In the first of many meetings this season between the rivals, Mt. SAC cruised to a 92-68 win.
With the score tied 8-8 in the first quarter, the Mounties went on an 11-0 run to take the lead for good. LBCC was down 53-34 at halftime. Sophomore Lupe Cruz (South East HS) led the Vikings with 15 points and seven rebounds while Martinez posted 14 points and six boards.
Martinez averaged 12.7 points and 5.3 rebounds while Seng had 8.7 points and 2.7 assists over the weekend to be named to the all-tournament team.
Long Beach returns to tournament action next weekend (Nov. 13-15) when the Vikings will compete at the Honda of Pasadena Classic, hosted by Pasadena City College. The Vikings face MiraCosta College on Friday at 1 p.m. to open tournament play.