Huskies Hit Stride in Second Half, Beat San Diego Miramar in Opening Round of Playoffs

by Cerwin D Haynes

(thumbnails by Henry Caceres)

It has been some time since East Los Angeles College Men's basketball has had to play in the opening round of the 3C2A state playoffs. Injuries - along with the resurgence of Mt. SAC as a conference power - has halted the run of Husky dominance in conference play this season. Still, the team was resilient enough to notch yet another 20-win season, and they earned a home game versus the Jets of San Diego Miramar. Despite a low-scoring first half, #12-seeded East LA (21-8, 7-3) was able to take-off in the second half to beat #21(#23)-seed Miramar (17-12, 12-4) going away, 77-63. The Huskies will advance to face #5 seed West LA College in Culver City this Saturday.

Perhaps through scouting the Huskies precision in how they run their offense, Miramar used physicality in the first half to ground ELAC's ability to get to their desired spots on the offensive end. Both teams seemed stuck in the mud for a good while during the first half; there was a stretch of over four minutes midway through the period where the score was stuck on 15-12 in favor of the visitors. ELAC began converting on some tough inside layups, but Miramar responded by finding the range from behind the arc, and ultimately pushed ahead 28-21 on a Mike Batchelor three-pointer at the 4:21 mark. The home Green then had a response of their own: an 8-0 run to take a 29-28 lead, capped by a Daniel Michelini-Jackson jumper. The Jets would close the half by converting a couple of layups to take a 32-29 lead into the break.

The first six-plus minutes of the second half saw both teams go back-and-forth before ELAC made a series of pushes to take the lead for good. After a pair of Alex Tran free throws gave SD Miramar a 47-46 lead with 13:54 to go, East LA responded with a 6-0 run all on made layups for a 52-47 lead at the 12:36 mark. Miramar answered with a made free throw, but Michelini-Jackson finally found daylight behind the arc, canned a three to give LEAC a 55-48 lead. The Jets converted a pair at the line and another layup to close within three, and that's when East LA made its biggest push: a 7-0 run capped by a Brandon Wilson layup and foul drawn for the and-one. He hit the freebie, and ELAC had a 62-52 lead with 8:33 left.

The Huskies missed all four attempts from behind the arc in the first half, but they more than made up for it in the second. With Miramar still too close for comfort, sophomore G Hassan Hughey came off the bench and drained a three at the 5:11 mark to give East a 67-54 lead. The Pack were closing in on the finish line, but Miramar wouldn't go away. Freshman F Dylan Godfrey was 4-4 from long range in the latter half - he splashed the last of the four threes with 2:40 to give ELAC a 16-point lead, 73-57. The Huskies would be out of reach of the Jets by that point.

HUSKY BITS

• Five Huskies scored in double-digits, including super-sub G Brandon Wilson. He had 14 points along with eight rebounds, and was perfect (3-3 FG, 3-3 FTs) from the field in the second half.
• Sophomore G Shemar Morrow scored 14 of his 16 points in the second half, shooting 7-9 from the field. He used his length and athleticism to drive the lane and get off a variety of tough-angle lay-ins.
  
  • Morrow also had a team-high five assists.
• Freshman G Daniel Michelini-Jackson, who had been coming off the bench recently as he worked his way back from injury, got back into the starting five tonight. He had 16 points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals.
• Godfrey had 12 of his 14 points in the second half. His shooting helped the Huskies build their second-half lead.
• More evidence of ELAC's unjamming of the offense in the second half: they assisted on 14 of their 19 made field-goals in the period (versus only four dimes on 12 made shots in the first half).
• East LA also won the rebounding battle, 38-27 (12-5 on the offensive glass).
• Miramar's Markees Williams had a game-high 19 points.

UP NEXT:

A rematch of the 2022 SoCal Regional Finals, with East LA once again visiting West LA. The Wildcats were ranked #2 in the state for a good portion of the season, so the Pack will have their work cut out for them. Gametime set for 7pm.