Facing three of the state's top 10 ranked teams in a row is a daunting task, and the Cerritos College women's basketball team has been asked to play all three of them on the road. On Friday, the Falcons dropped their second of those games in a row, as #6-ranked Long Beach City recorded a 62-54 win after the team lost to #10 Pasadena City College two days earlier. Cerritos (11-9, 5-4) must now take on undefeated and #1-ranked Mt. San Antonio College in a 5:00 p.m. game next Wednesday.
Down 23-9 with 11:44 left in the first half and 39-25 at intermission, the Falcons started to work their way back into the game. Cerritos continued to slowly cut their deficit and got it under double digits, 46-37 on a three-pointer from sophomore Marissa Rendon (St. Paul HS) with 13:42 left in the second half. They got to within 51-46 with 7:55 after an Angela Pena (Huntington Park HS) layup, while Rendon converted one of two free throws with 6:44 remaining to close the gap to 51-47.
The Vikings (18-2, 8-1) turned to Talia Rayford, who scored the next five points to put the game at 56-49 with 4:19 left in the game. However, freshman Tache' King (Gahr HS) drained a three-pointer with 1:28 to get the Falcons to a 56-52 game. Shakeena Benton netted six straight free throws for Long Beach City to close out the win.
Rendon (14 points, four rebounds), Pena (12 points, five rebounds) and freshman Nia Lateju (Norwalk HS), who had seven points and 10 rebounds, led the Falcons on the night. For the second game in a row, Cerritos played without sophomore Deenesha Bee (Pioneer HS), who has been under the weather. Benton (14 points, seven points) and Rayford (10 points, 10 rebounds) paced the Vikings.
Photo by Daryl Peterson