East LA Upsets Antelope Valley

ANTELOPE VALLEY --- The No. 13-seeded East Los Angeles Huskies stunned the No. 4-seeded Antelope Valley College, 111-106, in Round 2 of the CCCAA Men's Basketball Southern California Regionals on Feb. 28.

ELAC, 19-10 overall, will travel to No. 2-seeded Southwestern College (21-8) Wednesday, March 4 with a 7 p.m. tipoff. 

The game in Antelope Valley had 20 lead changes and eight ties.

"It was a high scoring, back and forth and exciting game from both teams," said ELAC Head Coach John Mosley. "Our guys made plays down the stretch and the game ended when we had the lead."

Antelope Valley (24-6) took a 57-56 with 18:06 left in the game off of a sophomore guard Lawrence White (Burbank Burroughs High School) field goal. The Marauders then led for over 15 minutes with leads that reached nine points on three different occasions.

ELAC fought back and tied the score at 97-all after freshman guard Miles Ford (Alhambra High School) hit a 3-point jump shot with 2:51 remaining.

Thirty six seconds later, ELAC took the lead for good when sophomore guard Je'Ron Primus (Westchester High School) connected on two free throws with 2:15 left and a 3-point jump shot (1:50 left).

Primus led the Huskies in scoring with 19 points.

Six other Huskies scored in double-digits, Ford and sophomore guard Marcus Romain (Progressive Christian, Brooklyn, New York) with 16 points apiece, sophomore guard Michael Cardenas (Fontana A.B. Miller High School) and freshman forward Marquis Salmon (Lancaster Village Christian High School) with 14 points apiece, freshman forward Richard Bivens (LA Jordan High School) who scored 12 and sophomore guard Te'shon Burton (Leuzinger High School) who scored 11.

A trio of Antelope Valley sophomores each scored 18 points, guards Tim Gilmore (Palmdale High School) and Shelton Boykin (Long Beach Poly High School) as well as point guard Ismail Ali (San Leandro High School).

Both teams were about even in most stats such as 3-point shots (13 each), scoring points in the paint (34 each) and Antelope Valley with 11 offensive rebounds to ELAC's 10.

The big difference in the game was that the Huskies scored 12 second chance points to Antelope Valley's four, and outrebounded the Marauders 42-30.

"The Huskies did a good job on the glass and shared the ball well to win," said Mosley, who added, "If we do the same next Wednesday with (solid) defense, outrebounding and taking care of the ball, our season can continue."

Three things will help the Huskies win playoff games according to Mosley, defense, rebounding and taking care of the ball.

"We've had a good run from the end of conference to now and we are peaking at the right time," Mosley said.

ELAC is 8-1 in its last nine games. The lone loss was an 84-79 setback against the No. 1 seed, Mt. San Antonio College (27-1).