Strong Second Quarter Leads Huskies to 69-59 Win on Sophomore Night

by Cerwin D Haynes

(photos by Chris Nunez & Juan Sanchez)

East LA women's basketball head coach has, at times, operated with a short bench due to a variety of issues. But thankfully, that wasn't the case last night: not only did he have almost a full host of reserves at the ready, he needed them to step up as Huskies leading scorer Naomi Winston-Ellis got hit with a bit of the stomach bug and had to come off the bench.

The Pack answered the call: a 25-12 second quarter advantage gave ELAC (18-6, 6-1) a double-digit lead they would not relinquish, as they put aside the Pasadena City College Lancers (8-13, 1-5) 69-59 on Sophomore Night.

Trailing the visitors 13-12 to start the second quarter, ELAC traded baskets for the first 2:38 of the period before PF Sydney Patterson scored inside on a layup to give East LA a 19-18 lead. The home Green would go on a 10-3 push thanks to a variety of offense: Patterson feasting inside, a couple of free throws plus a fast-break layup, a jumper by G/F Isabel Arango, and a beautiful steal and fast break layup by G Aliya Contreras opened the Huskies' lead to 29-21 at the 3:32 mark. Fast-forward to the near-end of the quarter, the Huskies had the ball with three seconds left after a Kaniya Hill layup made the score 35-25. ELAC seemed a bit out of tune as they tried to hunt for the final shot of the half, so Coach Turner called a 30-second timeout. Inbounding the ball under the PCC basket, Destyni Heard found Patterson curling into the paint - she hit the center with a perfect pass on the move, Patterson laid the ball up and in as the buzzer sounded. Huskies led the Lancers 37-25 at the half.

ELAC would stretch their lead to as large as 18 points in the third quarter before settling into a 15-point lead to start the fourth. A Khadijah Henry layup (she started in place of Winston-Ellis) pushed the Huskies' lead to 19 with 6:32 to go. The Pack still held a 19-point lead a bit later at the 4:03 mark as they started to slow down on offense sensing a victory in hand. The Lancers, to their credit, kept nibbling away at the lead late although they didn't have enough time to pose a serious threat.

Heard led the Huskies with 15 points along with five rebounds and six assists. Contreras scored 13 points with five steals (many of which lead to fast-break layups). Patterson tied her season-high with 10 points.

Pasadena's Lupe Vazquez led all scorers with 28 points - according to PCC's Robert Lewis, she is the fastest Lancer to reach 500 points in school history (19 games). Although she only shot 8-27, her ability to create space on her drives and shots gave Husky defenders a hard time.

HUSKY BITS

• As mentioned above, Coach Turner made good use of his bench who in turn put in good minutes. The Lancers, on the other hand, only dressed five players total.
• Delilah Kimble-Gray struggled from the field (three points, 1-6 FGs) but played a good floor game, tallying nine rebounds, nine assists and three steals.
• Winston-Ellis came off the bench with limited minutes (18) due to her illness and only shot 3-9 (including 1-5 from three) for nine points, but she managed to snag eight boards.

UP NEXT:

East LA heads to Walnut tomorrow for a rematch with conference-leading Mt. SAC, hoping to snag a share of the SCC-North title with a win. The Mounties upended the Huskies 64-57 in their first game on February 2.