Huskies Grind Past Rio Hondo, Sets Up Big Matchup Next Week

by Cerwin D Haynes

It's hard to argue that a 25-point win in a game where you outshoot your opponent 62.5% to 40% from the field is anything but a blowout. The Roadrunners of Rio Hondo College (4-22, 1-7) have a recent history of playing East LA College (18-8, 5-3) tough regardless of the score, and this game was no different. Still, the Pack did what they usually tend to do against their opponents from Whittier: withstanding Rio's physicality and putting together enough spurts of offensive fluidity to control the game comfortably, 92-67. Super sophomore sub G Brandon Wilson led the Huskies' scoring with 16 points off the bench on perfect 6-6 shooting (including a made three-pointer) and 3-4 from the free-throw line. Freshman F Dylan Godfrey scored 15 points on 6-8 shooting and also had one made three-ball.

The home Green led from the start, but Rio hung around initially, coming within a point at 19-18 on a pair of Mike Bilal free-throws with 9:19 to go in the first half. The game was close for the next two-plus minutes, and then ELAC made it's move: a 15-0 run from the 6:42 mark to 3:04 left pushed the Huskies lead from 25-22 to 40-22. Rebounding on both ends of the glass along with sound ball movement led to layups and open shots for the Huskies during that stretch, and they would ultimately take a 47-28 lead into the lockers at half.

Rio Hondo never got closer than 17 points in the second half, while East LA led by as many as 28 points before the final horn sounded.

HUSKY BITS

• The Pack had another dominating evening on the boards, outrebounding the Roadrunners 41-23 (13-10 offensive).
• This season, East LA has had to compensate in other ways for not having their typical big man in the middle defensively. Yet tonight they had four blocked shots: two by Godfrey, and two by sophomore G Javion Langston (channeling some energy from his big brother JT).
• Sophomore G Jalai Okeith had 13 points on 4-6 shooting, including 2-3 from three and 3-3 from the line.
• Freshman G and leading-scorer Daniel Michelini-Jackson, who has had to deal with several injuries this season, is working his way back from another mishap. He had nine points and six rebounds off the bench.
• Sophomore PG Hassan Hughey had five assists off the bench.
• Sophomore G Eli Cofield (brother of former Huskies' conference Player of the Year Corey Cofield) saw court action in this one. He had six points on 3-3 shooting in four minutes of play, along with two rebounds.
• Roadrunners G Mike Bilal led all scorers with 20 points on 7-11 shooting.

UP NEXT:

The Huskies will have their home finale and Sophomore Night matchup next Wednesday as they host LA Trade Tech College (16-10, 5-3). It's a critical game, given both teams and Pasadena City College (who beat Mt. SAC tonight) are tied for second in the conference standings. ELAC has a better overall record than Trade Tech, but more importantly, the Huskies has a significant edge over the Beavers in the state RPI rankings. It's been mentioned in previous posts how vital RPI rankings are to playoff qualifications... but so are conference standings. It would behoove the Pack not to fall behind LATTC via a loss on Wednesday (thus fall behind a team that's lower in the RPI rankings than they are), and to keep pace with Pasadena. All of that to say, this Wednesday is critical to the Huskies maintaining their footing for a playoff spot.