Long Beach City College Rallies to Beat El Camino

If records and rankings are any indication of a team’s strength, El Camino College was supposed to get blown out by Long Beach City College in Wednesday night’s South Coast Conference basketball game.

But the unranked Warriors battled to the end before losing, 74-66, in a physical and defense-oriented game at Long Beach. El Camino fell to 18-11 overall and 2-4 in SCC play. Long Beach, ranked third in the state by the JC Athletic Bureau and leading the SCC, improved to 25-4 and 5-1. The Viking’s only conference loss was against Cerritos, the league’s second-place team.

“They have a great team, but they’re not better than us,” El Camino Coach Ron McClurkin said. “We could have beat them tonight.”

El Camino held a 35-29 halftime lead. But the Warriors blew an 11-point lead early in the second half. A dunk by Keishaun Darthard gave El Camino a 43-32 lead with 17:30 left to play, but minutes later Long Beach went on an 18-4 run to take a 55-51 lead.

During the run, El Camino was without freshman forward Mike Reynolds. He left the game with a bloodied lip with 16:24 left to play. McClurkin says the wound will require stitches.

“That really hurt us,” McClurkin said. “Our zone didn’t work when Mike wasn’t in there. That was a key factor. It just wasn’t the same after that.”

El Camino never led by more than a point after that. A Steve King layup tied the score, 62-62, with 2:35 remaining, but the Warriors committed three turnovers in the final two minutes, allowing Long Beach to secure the victory.

Point guard Troy Williams and Darthard led El Camino with 13 points each. Freshman Steve King added 10.

Long Beach was led by sophomore guard Carroll Thompson, who had 24 points.