ELAC Men’s Basketball Bounces Back with Two Wins

MONTEREY PARK, CA — The Huskies men’s basketball team bounced back from a shocking upset loss to Mt. SAC last week with two big wins, which included a 106-57 win tonight.

The 49-point win over crosstown rival Los Angeles Trade Tech is the fourth time East Los Angeles College scored 100 or more points in the last 11 games, and the 11th time in four years.

ELAC also defeated a tough Rio Hondo squad on Wednesday 84-60.

Against Trade Tech, the Huskies built a 49-19 lead at the half in front of a big crowd. Four Huskies scored in double digits, two of them had double doubles.

Freshman center Solomon Hunt (Upland High School) scored a season-high 25 points and pulled down 12 rebounds for the fourth time this season. Hunt had his fourth double double of the season. Trade Tech did their homework and held Hunt to zero 3-point shot attempts. Hunt leads the SCC North in 3-pointers connecting on 61.7% of them.

Sophomore forward Roderick Williams (Price HS) had his fifth double double of the season with 10 points and 11 rebounds. Freshman forward Jacob Tryon (Great Oak HS) scored 18 points. He blocked four shots for the second straight game. Tryon leads the conference in blocked shots and averages 2.1 per game, seventh best in the state. Sophomore guard Frank Bertz (Sultana HS) scored 14 points.

The Huskies had 51 rebounds, 24 assists and 14 steals. Sophomore guard Robert Fuller (St. Bernard HS) had a team-high three steals. Fuller was one of three Huskies that contributed four assists each, along with freshman guards Nick Hart (West Covina HS) and Abdul Bah (Narbonne HS).

Against Rio Hondo, The Huskies outscored the Roadrunners 39-28 in the first half. ELAC’s largest lead of the game was 64-35 off of Williams’s put back with 11:15 remaining in the game.

“I think we played a solid game especially on defense,” said ELAC freshman guard Mark Boland (Birmingham HS). “It was overall a team win.”

Williams scored a game-high 24 points. Tryon had a double double with 20 points and 10 rebounds and he wooed the home crowd with a game-high four blocked shots.

The Huskies out-rebounded Rio Hondo 44-17, had more assists, 25-11, and had eight blocked shots. Three Huskies had five assists each—Fuller, Hunt and Tryon. Two Rio Hondo freshmen led the Roadrunners in scoring, forward Anthony Rios (Whittier HS), who scored 20 points, and guard Jonathan Martinez (Sonora HS) who finished with 18.

The No. 11 state-ranked Huskies, 18-5 overall and 3-1 in the SCC North, play at No. 18 Chaffey College (16-7, 4-0) with conference title hopes at stake. An ELAC win will create a three-way tie for the conference lead and a Husky loss puts ELAC in third place, providing favored Mt. SAC (10-11, 3-1) gets by Trade Tech (6-12, 1-3). Chaffey beat Rio Hondo 65-63 in overtime last Friday.

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story submitted by Tadzio Garcia