Long Beach Wins JC Title

Sharif Metoyer’s only basket of the second half was the winner as Long Beach defeated Ventura, 63-61, to win the community college State men’s basketball championship Saturday at UC Irvine.

Metoyer scored the game’s last basket on a layup with 1:44 to play, giving Long Beach (32-6) its fifth State title.

Ventura (36-3) had three chances to tie. The last came when Steve Amar was fouled with five seconds to play. After missing his first free throw, he intentionally missed the second, but Ventura couldn’t get the rebound.