Report by LBCC’s Chris Ruiz 

The Long Beach City College men’s basketball team suffered a tough 64-62 South Coast Conference interdivision loss to visiting East Los Angeles College on Friday night at the Hall of Champions Gym.

The Vikings couldn’t hold on to a late lead as East L.A. rallied to pull off the last-minute win.

Long Beach led by eight points (60-52) at the 6:12 mark in the second and was up by six (62-56) with 4:37 left in the game before East L.A. closed out the contest with an 8-0 scoring run.

After a LBCC shot clock violation, East L.A.’s Daoud Ibrahim’s layup with 35 seconds left in the game gave the Huskies its first lead of the game.

Sophomore guard Darrin Kirk launched a pair of three-point attempts over the final 30 seconds of the contest, but could not connect.

The Vikings outrebounded the Huskies by a 46-38 margin and led the game 34-27 at halftime.

Freshman guard Kristien Owens led LBCC with 15 points, eight rebounds, and six steals. Sophomore guard Leo Arnold added 12 points, six rebounds, and four assists. Freshman forward Holsey Johnson came off the bench and posted 10 points and seven rebounds.

Ibrahim led East L.A. (2-6) with 15 points.

Long Beach (3-4) returns to action on Tuesday (Dec. 8) at 1 p.m. when it will face San Bernardino Valley College at the Riverside City College tournament.