Conference Champion Huskies Wrap-Up Regular Season with Big Road Win at Mt. SAC
by Cerwin D Haynes
(thumbnail by Mario Villegas)
A little more than 24-hours ago, East Los Angeles College men's basketball was preparing for their conference rematch with Mt. San Antonio College under the assumption that the South Coast Conference-North title was still undecided. But thanks to Los Angeles Trade Tech College's decision last night to forfeit this past Wednesday's game (instead of resuming it this Saturday), the Huskies secured the conference title before heading to over to Walnut.
Maybe it was because a higher playoff seed was still up for grabs for the Pack. Or maybe it was because Mt. SAC is, well, Mt. SAC. Either way, the Huskies asserted themselves physically on both ends of the court and pulled away in the second half to bag a 87-66 road win on Mounties' Sophomore Night. Sophomore G/F Esteban Mann led all scorers with 18 points while pulling down 10 rebounds, while sophomore PG Donjae Lindsey poured in 13 points off the bench to go along with four rebounds, three assists and three steals.
Recalling how physical Mt. SAC was in their first meeting, East LA set the tone over the first six-plus minutes of play. They hit the boards relentless on both ends while defending at a high level - and while they missed a good number of bunnies in the paint, the offensive rebounding gave them extra opportunities to convert buckets. A pair of Jayden Barnes free-throws gave ELAC a 16-6 lead at the 13:25 mark in the front half. From there, Mt. SAC gradually began to respond over the next nine minutes with a 20-11 scoring edge. A Joel Gado layup trimmed East's lead to one at 27-26... and that was a close as Mt. SAC would get to taking the lead. The Huskies closed the half on a 9-3 surge to take a 36-29 lead into the break.
Coming out of halftime, the road Green (well, they wore black) stuck with their formula of tough defense and Pack mentality on the boards. ELAC spent the first eight minutes of the second half keeping Mt. SAC at arm's length, with their lead fluctuating between five to 10 points. An Esteban Mann layup with 11:39 left gave East a 53-42 lead. 35 seconds later, after a chaotic sequence that saw back-and-forth steals, sophomore PG Kamren Williams came up of a steal of Jaidyn Simpson and tossed the ball ahead to sophomore G/F Zyier Beverly who slammed the ball home with his typical flair for a 55-42 lead. After both teams traded a pair of made free-throws, sophomore G Daniel Michelini-Jackson got free outside the arc and canned a triple for a 60-44 lead with 9:22 left. Mt. SAC would draw no closer than 13 points the rest of the way as ELAC tightened their control of the game and won going away.
HUSKY BITS
- East made three of their five three-pointers in the second half. Each of those threes (Michelini-Jackson, Donjae Lindsey and Denton Latimore) had impeccable timing as they stymied any effort by the Mounties to mount any kind of comeback.
- ELAC completed owned the glass, enjoying a whopping 56-21 rebounding margin (22-3 on the offensive boards). Freshman F Terrence Hampton snagged 16 rebounds.
- Freshman PG Jayden Barnes had 10 points (2-3 FGs, 6-6 FTs) and two assists in 15 minutes off the bench. He allowed head coach John Mosley to employ multiple lineups of dual point guards, with the freshman being paired with either Williams of Lindsey on several occasions.
- The Huskies missed a lot of close-range shots in the first half which contributed to a field goal percentage of 39.4% for the half. They course-corrected in the second half, shooting a more characteristic 56.8% (48.6% for the whole game).
- Mt. SAC shot 40.4% for the game, and more importantly, put up a big nil from beyond the arc (0-12 3FGs).
UP NEXT:
We awaiting the playoff brackets to be announced by 3C2A/CCCMBCA sometime on Sunday afternoon. East LA, ranked #5 in the state, trail Fullerton and Citrus colleges in the RPI and WPI rankings. Because strength of schedule matter as much as overall records, the odds right now are on ELAC securing a #3 seed in the SoCal bracket (both Fullerton and Citrus won tonight and have secured their respective conference championships). Seeds #1-4 generally enjoy a first-round bye and only need to win two home playoff games to advance to the State Championships.