The Vikings’ men’s basketball team has a new head coach in Barry Barnes—but he’ll have to wait at least a few more days to get his first win with the team, as they dropped their season opener in the Hall of Champions Gym, 77-63, to Mt. SAC.  Sophomore forward Chris Brown scored 25 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in the losing effort.

Turnovers were costly in the contest, as Long Beach committed 29 turnovers which resulted in 28 Mt. SAC points.

The Mounties built a commanding 35-18 lead with 4:48 to go in the first half thanks to a two-minute, 14-2 run. Mt. SAC led by 16 points (44-28) at halftime.

Mt. SAC was up 66-48 with 7:25 to go in the second before the Vikings slowly began to chip away.

Long Beach put together a 12-2 run and after a three-pointer by sophomore guard Darrin Kirk, the Vikings trailed by just eight points (68-60) with 3:03 left in the ball game.

But LBCC would get no closer. Mt. SAC outscored the Vikings 11-3 the rest of the game to hold on for the win.

Guard Antonio Biglow led Mt. SAC (2-0) with a game-high 33 points. Forward Josh White came off the bench to score 14 points and 13 rebounds.

For Long Beach (0-1), sophomore guard Leo Arnold totaled 12 points.

Coach Barnes will his next shot at career win No. 1 on Thursday night, as Long Beach hosts Fullerton College in a non-conference game 6pm.

From LBCC reports