SANTA ANA, Calif. – In its first game of the 2018-19 season, the Santa Ana men's basketball team fell to the Long Beach City Vikings by a score of 74-71 in round one of the SAC Tipoff Tournament.

The Dons trailed for most of the game and were down by 15 (63-48) midway through the second half. After switching to a zone defense, Santa Ana made a run down the stretch to themselves a chance.

With about four and a half minutes remaining, Chris Bailey initiated the comeback as he played through contact to score a bucket with a foul to cut the Viking lead to 72-61. From there, the Dons went on a 10-0 run to make it a one point game with just nine seconds left.

Long Beach then inbounded the ball to Jeremiah Sadler, who knocked down two free throws to clinch the game, ending the Dons run.

GAME NOTES

Santa Ana outshot the Vikings from the field and free throw line, hitting 40 percent (22-55) of their shots and 75 (21-28) from the stripe compared to just 31.9 percent (22-69) and 56.8 (21-37) for Long Beach.

Where the Dons lost the battle was on the boards, as LBCC grabbed five more rebounds (44-39) than SAC. In addition, the turned over the ball 24 times compared to just 16 for their opponent.

STAT STUFFERS

Freshman guard Ramon Lopez led the Dons in points with 22 on 7-16 shooting while sophomore forward Chris Bailey started the year with a 12 point, seven rebound performance.

UP NEXT

Santa Ana will play Chaffey College in the third place game of the SAC Tipoff Tournament on Friday at 5:30 p.m.