Lady Huskies ousted in Elite 8 playoff game
LIVERMORE, CA — In one of the biggest upsets of the year, No. 2 state-ranked East Los Angeles College lost to No. 8 College of the Siskiyous, 93-81, in a CCCAA Women's Basketball Championships quarterfinal game at Las Positas College.
The Lady Huskies ended their season 28-3 overall, the best women’s basketball record in ELAC’s 71-year history. Siskiyous, a Sweet 16 team four out of the previous five years, moves on to the Final Four.
There were 12 lead changes and six ties in the first three quarters. The Lady Huskies, the No. 2-seed from Southern California in the championship bracket, led Siskiyous (30-1), the No. 3-seed from Northern California, after the first quarter 27-20 and at the half 46-40. The teams were deadlocked 58-58 after the third.
In the final quarter, Siskiyous slammed the door shut on ELAC with a 35-point outburst to ELAC’s 23. It was the most points scored in one quarter against the Lady Huskies all season.
ELAC sophomore guard Katrina Reeves (Orlando, FL / Dr. Phillips HS) scored 15 of her season-high 23 points in the fourth quarter. Siskiyous’ Hanna Thompson scored 15 of her game-high 36 points also in the fourth.
Siskiyous used the back-door play as its bread-and-butter play all night to score layups and scored 36 points in the paint. The Siskiyous duo of guard Melissa Daily and Thompson average the most points per game in the state, 26.1 and 24.5 points, respectively. Daily scored 25 points tonight.
Sophomore guard Tiffani Martinez (Montebello HS) scored 22 points for the Huskies, which included a game-high six shots from beyond the arc. ELAC sophomore guard Allissa Gomez (Roosevelt HS) also scored in double digits with 13 points.
Martinez connected on 41.1 percent of her 3-pointers this season and finished tied for fifth best in the state.
Freshman guard Monica Garcia (Garfield HS) came off the bench and had a team-high 10 rebounds. Garcia ended the season with a 53.1 percent shooting average, tied for eighth best in the state.
The Huskies had nine steals, one more than Siskiyous. Garcia had a team-high four steals and Reeves had two.
Garcia had a team-high four assists for ELAC and sophomore center Gloria Ortiz (Roosevelt HS) had two as did sophomore guard Wuanyei Ah-Hing (West Auckland, New Zealand / Massey HS).
Gomez and sophomore center Anastasia Tsybaeva (Burbank HS) each had a blocked shot. Tsybaeva averaged 2.4 blocked shots per game, fifth best in the state.
ELAC Head Coach Bruce Turner with assistant coaches Sarai Trinidad and Wilbert Knight have five playoff appearances in the last six years, which includes two Final Four Teams (one state runner-up) and two Elite Eight teams.
ELAC, the 2016-17 co-champions of the South Coast Conference North Division, won its first conference title since the 1980s. In doing so, the Lady Huskies ended Mt. San Antonio College’s (31-2) 51-game conference win streak.
story submitted by Tadzio Garcia