A good strategy is to stay in a corner and shoot any enemy that comes toward you. Only chase after enemies if necessary, and return to your corner as soon as possible. Only go out of the corner to pick up buddy or laser power-ups, and when you do hug the walls and don't go in the center.
catsfanj, that's probably because it's based on frame-rate, not time, and 101 seconds is an estimate based on average frames per second. Chances are, you have a slower than average computer.