Sophomore forward Chris Brown scored a team-high 25 points and sophomore guard Darrin Kirk poured in 21 points to lead the Long Beach City College men’s basketball team to a 72-66 South Coast Conference South Division win over visiting L.A. Southwest College on Friday night at the Hall of Champions Gym.

 

The win improved LBCC to 7-14 overall and 3-2 in the SCC South while L.A. Southwest fell to 10-14 and 0-5 in division play.

 

The Vikings stormed out to a 8-0 lead and was up 12-1 and never looked back in the contest. Long Beach led by as many as 14 points (26-12) at the 5:25 mark but went into halftime leading just 28-23.

 

LBCC jumped out to another big lead in the second. Brown’s layup and successful free throw after a foul put Long Beach up by 15 points (47-32) with 10:39 to go.

 

But L.A. Southwest rallied back to get within two points at 51-49 with 6:06 left in the game before the Vikings converted six of their next seven free throw attempts to go back up 56-49. The Cougars wouldn’t go down easy though. L.A. Southwest nailed three three-pointers over the final 40 seconds but would get no closer than four points (70-66, 00:13).

 

Freshman center Kyle Clark turned in a good game for the Vikings as he scored seven points, grabbed 10 rebounds, and had a pair of assists and steals.

 

Bryce Lane scored a game-high 26 points to lead the Cougars.

 

Long Beach returns to action on Wednesday (Feb. 10) when it travels to El Camino College for a 7:30 pm SCC South game.

Reports From LBCC