COLLEGE BASKETBALL STATE JC TOURNAMENT : Long Beach Overcomes Turnovers

Long Beach City College overcame sloppy ballhandling with balanced scoring and defeated College of the Sequoias, 76-66, in the first round of the State junior college men’s basketball tournament Thursday in the Bren Center at UC Irvine.

Long Beach (31-4) had 19 turnovers but maintained at least a six-point lead in the second half. Sequoias (22-12) closed to 65-58 with 4:59 left, and Long Beach called time out. Victor Campter then made a layup, Terry Nelson had a short jump shot and Rob Goodman scored on a breakaway layup and Long Beach led, 71-58, with 3:21 to play.

Campter scored a team-high 15 in a substitute’s role. Damaine Powell, Melvin Jones and Goodman had 14 each. Nelson had 10 points but eight turnovers as well.

“We didn’t do ourselves proud,” Long Beach Coach Gary Anderson said. “But we’ll be back.”

Long Beach advances to the semifinals against Cypress at 6 p.m. tonight at Irvine.

Marcell Capers had 18 points and Daniel Crosby 16 for Sequoias, which finished 22-12.

Cypress advanced by beating Columbia, the top-seeded team from Northern California, 74-61. Cypress’ Eric Pauley scored 26 points as the Chargers eliminated Columbia (31-5). Pauley, a 6-foot-10 forward, also had 12 rebounds.

Brian Kennedy added 16 points and Charles Lockard 13 for Cypress (26-10). Lockard hit a three-point shot to break a 49-49 tie with 7:40 left and Cypress didn’t trail again.

Compton advanced to an 8 p.m. semifinal game against Rancho Santiago by beating Chabot, 81-78. Steve Logan scored a game-high 28 points for Compton (28-6), which used a 22-2 run to build a 27-12 lead midway through the first half, then hung on.

Chabot (24-8) trailed, 44-36, at halftime and got as close as two points twice in the second half. The last time came when guard Eric Robinson made a three-point shot with 18 seconds left to cut the lead to 80-78. Logan made one of two free throws with 15 seconds left, and Chabot missed two three-point shots in the final 10 seconds.

Rancho Santiago beat Kings River, 74-58, behind Corie Blount’s 22-point, 13-rebound performance. Erik Martin added 17 points.

The victory by Rancho Santiago (33-2) set a school record for victories.

No Kings River player reached doubles figures, and the Tigers finished at 26-10.