Long Beach City College went 3-crazy on Friday night in a 99-75 men’s basketball win over SBCC at the Sports Pavilion.
The 18th-ranked Vikings (9-4) scored their first 11 baskets from long range and built a 33-13 lead after 10½ minutes. Long Beach canned 13-of-18 from 3-point land in the first half alone for a stunning 72.2 percent. The Vikings led 57-36 at intermission.
“You never see a team make 13 3-pointers in one half,” noted SBCC coach Morris Hodges. “And they were only shooting 20 percent (actually 28.1 percent) on 3’s coming into the game. Once we got behind, it was tough but our kids continued to fight. It was just too big of a hole.
“They’re quick and they’re athletic and they scrambled us a little bit. We had 21 turnovers, leading to 30 points. We didn’t help ourselves by not executing and they hit nearly every 3 in the first half.”
Long Beach drained 18-32 from the 3-point arc for the game (56.3 percent) and outscored SBCC 54-9. The Vaqueros were 3-9 on long-range shots.
Sophomore guard Brandon Staton led the Vikings with 25 points. He hit 8-12 from the field and 7-10 from the 3-point arc. He scored 20 in the opening half on 6-7 shooting from downtown. Andre Springer added 14 points on 4-8 shooting from long range.
Ty Cleland topped the Vaqueros (4-8) with a season-high 16 points off the bench. He was 9-11 from the free-throw line on a night the Vikings committed 33 fouls. SBCC was 26-41 from the foul line for 63.4 percent.
Sean Keyes added 13 points and Alonzo McCain and Thomas Walker had 12 apiece. Walker led the Vaqueros in rebounds with six. Long Beach outshot Santa Barbara 54.5 to 50 percent.
The Vikings opened the second half on a 12-6 run, stretching the lead to 27 points at 69-42.
“We just have to rebound and get back to work for conference,” said Hodges. “Everybody starts 0-0 in the conference.”
SBCC opens WSC North play on Saturday, Jan. 10 with a 3 p.m. game at Oxnard.
Vaquero Notes: Cody Williams, a 6-6 freshman who’s the younger brother of UCSB star Alan Williams, re-injured his shoulder in the first half of the Vaqueros’ last game vs. Cuesta. Hodges said he’s going to have surgery in a few weeks and will be out for the season.
