Pack Passes Road Test, Prepare for Mt. SAC Showdown

by Cerwin D Haynes

(thumbnail photos by @photobynicolette -IG)

With the anticipated SoCal heavyweight matchup between East LA College men's basketball (State #8, 19-2, 4-0) and Mt. SAC (State #3, 21-1, 4-0) looming this week, it would have been easy for the Huskies to overlook their two conference road games at Pasadena City and LA Trade Tech. The Pack have won nine out of their last 10 at Hutto-Patterson Gymnasium in Pasadena, and haven't tasted defeat in at least 15 years at Trade Tech's gym (although they had to sweat out 93-91 win there last year). But they took care of business in both places last week, and was able to take their state-best 17-game win streak into the weekend as they prepare for the Mounties to arrive in the "E-rena" tomorrow.

Last week's results:

ELAC 85, PCC 69

The Lancers played the Huskies tough in the first half, taking a 36-34 lead into halftime... and then it became the Daniel Michelini-Jackson Show. 

The sophomore SG canned all 11 of his field-goal attempts in the second half, scoring 24 of his career-high 34 points in the latter frame. Between his explosion and ELAC's defense - holding PCC to 33% shooting in the second half with six blocks - the Pack outscored their hosts 51-33 over the last 20 minutes of the game. Freshman F/C Terrance Hampton added eight points, 11 rebounds and three rejections while ELAC leading scorer sophomore G/F Esteban Mann had eight points, nine boards and three swats of his own. PGs Kamren Williams (soph) and Jayden Barnes (frosh) each had six assists as East LA assisted on 24 of it's 33 made field goals (33-57, 57.9%) on the night.

ELAC 91, LATTC 60

The Huskies started the game strong against their LACCD-mate Beavers and didn't let up. As good as he was offensively on Wednesday, Michelini-Jackson was just as good defensively in the first half of this one as he stayed in front of his man throughout and helped East force Trade into 11 first-half turnovers, along with a chilly 37.5% clip from the field. Meanwhile, the road Green (well, they wore black) set up shop in the paint on both ends: a 20-11 advantage on the boards (6-2 edge offensive rebounds), shooting 60% from the field (18-30) and three blocks helped give ELAC a 44-24 halftime lead. Head coach John Mosley went to his bench for majority of the second half as the lead extended. Mann and Hampton tied for team-high with 19 points apiece. Sophomores PG Donjae Lindsey (17 pts/10 rebs) and F Zyier Beverly (11 pts/10 rebs) had double-doubles off the bench.

HUSKY BITS

When asked about Michelini-Jackson's career night at Pasadena City, Coach Mosley replied, "he's a D1 player".

Assistant coach Ken Hunter elaborated on a recent IG post, stating how the Lawndale HS product overcame a string of health issues his freshman year while balancing expectations of his scoring abilities against team needs. "We asked him to sacrifice some of his scoring ability to become a better leader," wrote Hunter. "...he had his career high and he did it without being selfish, without 20 dribbles. Still played high level defense and still cheered his teammates on while on the bench!"

UP NEXT:

Mt. SAC will bring into Monterey Park tomorrow a quartet of highly-capable scoring guards, led by Jaidyn Simpson. The freshman guard is second in South Coast Conference scoring at 20.7 per game on a dangerous 50.8% shooting clip. Between him and sophomores Jon McCullough (13.5 ppg, 44.6% FGs), Immanuel Taylor (11.9 ppg, 42.9% FGs) and Kenneth Brown (10.8 ppg, 41.1% FGs), they comprise 66.9 of Mt. SAC's 81.7 points per game average on the season. To counter, Coach Mosley will need to deploy his size, length and numbers at the wings to slow down the Mountie guards while taking advantage of their size in the paint. 

Tip off is at 7pm (or 20 minutes following the conclusion of the women's game, whichever is later). As always, SportsNetUSA.net will stream the games live.