In a span that covers five seasons and 11 games, the Cerritos College women's basketball team had not lost a game against crosstown rival Long Beach City. But on Friday, the Falcons lost to the Vikings for the first time since 2007, as they dropped a 60-36 South Coast Conference game at Irvine Valley College. The loss dropped Cerritos to 4-6 overall and 0-2 in the SCC, while LBCC improved to 8-1 and 1-0. Next Friday the team will travel to Compton for a 6:00 p.m. SCC game against ECC Compton Center.

In the first half, the Vikings received three-point baskets from Destinn Romain and her twin sister, Regina Romain to put the score at 20-8 with 10:42 left. It was part of a four-minute period where the Falcons failed to score and trailed 25-10 after a pair of free throws by sophomore Deenesha Bee (Pioneer HS) ended that scoring drought. Long Beach increased their lead to 20 points (35-15) late in the first half, mainly because Cerritos had nearly as many points (18) as they did turnovers (16) by intermission. Their 6-for-25 shooting didn't help their cause, while the Vikings scored 10 of their points off turnovers.

The Falcons leading scorer, sophomore Marissa Rendon (St. Paul HS), came out of the game at the 10:50 mark of the first half and didn't return. She failed to get off a shot in her seven minutes of action after entering the night averaging 14 points a game, which included 33-point and 25-point games.

LBCC received 11 points from Destinn Romain, 10 points and six rebounds by Jasmine Williams, while Talia Rayford pulled down 13 rebounds. As for Cerritos, they converted 22% of their field goals in the game with sophomore Diamond Roberts (Mayfair HS) leading the team with eight points, while sophomore Angela Pena (Huntington Park College Ready Academy HS) hauled down 11 rebounds. Freshman Nia Lateju (Norwalk HS) came off the bench to account for seven points in the loss.

Photo by Daryl Peterson