Continuing to put pressure on their opponents, the Cerritos College women's basketball team won their fourth game in a row, as they defeated rival Long Beach City College, 74-55 on Friday night. The Falcons (16-10, 5-1) will get a chance to move into a tie for first place in the South Coast Conference South Division, as they travel on Wednesday to take on first place El Camino College.

Taking on a depleted Vikings squad, Cerritos connected on 13 three-pointers and forced 24 turnovers in the win. Seven of the turnovers forced by the Falcon defense came on inbound plays by Long Beach City in the second half. That allowed Cerritos to start their fast break offensive attack, which was supported by their outside shooting.

Fighting from beginning to end, the Vikings were able to stay close with some timely outside shooting of their own. The Falcons held a 21-14 lead after the first quarter, but when Kaylin Brown (18 points) hit a three-pointer and a field goal, the Cerritos lead was just 27-25 with 5:20 left in the second quarter. After sophomore Serena Rendon (Carson HS) hit a jumper, sophomore twin sister Jesenia Rendon (Carson HS) hit a long three-pointer, and the lead was back up to 32-25.

Cerritos kept the Vikings off the board the final 2:31 of the first half, which allowed them to increase their lead to 39-30 at intermission. 

The teams traded three-pointers to start the second half until Jesenia Rendon scored on a jumper and Serena Rendon followed with a three-pointer after a LBCC turnover to increase the team's lead to 47-39. As the shots stopped falling for Long Beach, the Falcons got hotter, as the Rendons went on to score the next 10 points to make it a 57-39 Cerritos lead.

Leading the way, Jesenia Rendon finished with 27 points, made six three-pointers while also adding five steals and four rebounds. As for Serena Rendon, she accounted for 17 points and seven rebounds, with sophomore Lynette Garcia (Downey HS/Park (MO) University) adding four three-pointers on her way to 14 points and six steals. Off the bench, freshman Sarah Hernandez (St. Paul HS) pulled down all nine of her rebounds on the offensive end and added six points.

Photos by Daryl Peterson