Women's Basketball Fends Off Roadrunners

Husky comeback sets up Friday’s SCC North title matchup

East Los Angeles College (25-5) battled from behind to victory against Rio Hondo College (17-8), 72-66 Wednesday, to remain undefeated at home (10-0) and stays alive for a shot at a South Coast Conference North title on Friday.

“I told them in the locker room at half this is our championship game tonight. Not Friday,” Elac head coach Bruce Turner said referring to Friday’s highly anticipated seasonal finale at home against No. 3 Los Angeles Trade Tech College (23-4) to decide a conference champion.

“Without tonight there is no Friday night.”

A dismal second period kept the Huskies to nine points in the period and went down by as much as 13 points while shooting a poor 30 percent in the first half.

“I knew we would not have another runaway game like we had at Rio Hondo (Feb. 1, 88-64). They do such a good job in their half court offense, we shot poorly and had 14 turnovers in the first half,” Turner said.

Husky starters struggled and had one in player double figure points, Jaelynn Curley (Ganado, AZ Ganado HS), who finished with 15 points, in comparison to Roadrunner starters, who had four starters in double figure points. Curley penciled in four steals, three rebounds and a block.

ELAC’s offense ranks No. 8 in scoring, averaging 78 point per game, but it was the defense that stepped up in the second half.

ELAC freshman guard, Dominique Godbolt (L.A. Fairfax HS) was a major contributor off the bench in the second half and came up with a huge block in the fourth period that shifted the energy, and two minutes later she drained a three-point shot to tie the game, 53-53 with eight minutes to go.

Godbolt finished with a double-double and team-high 18 points, 11 rebounds, two assist, three steals.

Husky sophomore guard, Jennifer Pool (L.A. Legacy HS) nearly registered a rare triple-double — seven points, nine assist, and six steals.

Collectively, the Huskies came up with 16 steals, sixth most in a game this season resulting in 24 points off 22 Rio Hondo turnovers.

Next up, it’s win and win a conference title for both ELAC and Trade Tech. In their previous game Feb. 6, Tech handed a 14-point loss to ELAC, 71-57 at LATT.

“It’s two evenly matched teams. Last game, we did not have Godbolt, and I sure hope home court does make a difference. The “E-rena” (ELAC South Gym) has been good to us, we have not lost here yet,” Turner said.