Huskies Overcome Hot Shooting Dons, Hold on Late to Advance

by Cerwin D Haynes

thumbnail by Christian Gonzalez (christianco_photography)

A lot of times, one will hear the saying "a tale of two halves" when referring to basketball games. But for East LA College men's basketball, their battle tonight against the Santa Ana College Dons was really a tale of two games. Ultimately, it was the Huskies' game of owning the paint, getting to the line, and a terrific last-minute steal by freshman PG Darrell Morris that ultimately edged out a hot-shooting Dons team, 91-89. ELAC, the #13 seed in the SoCal Region of the 3C2A Playoffs, will move on to face #4-seed Ventura College at the Athletic Event Center this Saturday at 7pm.

Santa Ana - who came into tonight shooting a modest 44.9% from the field and 35.1% from three-point range - almost couldn't miss for the first 27 minutes of the game. Playing a game based on red-hot shooting, the Dons were at one point hitting better than 56% of their shots while nailing 13 out of 23 from deep. East LA trailed the visitors 69-55 with 13:11 to go as the home faithful began to worry if SAC's incredulous shooting would continue.

But then, the Pack finally started playing their game. Which meant getting the ball into the paint and into sophomore big Terrence Hampton for inside G's while PGs Jayden Barnes and Darrell Morris (often sharing the backcourt together in the second half) driving into the paint and getting to the free throw line. It also meant finally tightening up on defense and forcing Santa Ana to miss a succession of shots (finally) while gobbling up rebounds on both ends of the floor. The result: a 19-5 surge by the home Green over the next 5:04, with an and-1 layup by Morris (FT made) to tie the game at 74-all.

The final eight minutes of play was nip-and-tuck, with a Barnes layup giving ELAC an 88-86 lead with 2:13 left. After forcing a missed layup by SAC's Joshua Garland, Barnes drove into the paint and drew a foul as he attempted a shot. He made both freebies for a 90-86 lead.

Santa Ana had one more three-ball left in them, as a Cameron Swist triple trimmed the Huskies' lead a single point at 90-89 with 42 seconds left, with the Dons calling timeout rightafter. On the inbound, ELAC brought the ball up and milked some clock, but head coach John Mosley didn't like the offensive setup of his team on the floor, so he called time with 18 seconds left. After the timeout, Morris got the ball and drove into the paint, but a swarm of Dons were waiting and he got the ball knocked away and stolen with 10 seconds left.

Santa Ana now had a chance to win... well, they could have had a shot if they were able to get a shot up. But Morris made sure they wouldn't get that chance: with SAC PG Christen Jimenez bringing the ball up past halfcourt, the frosh point guard out of West Ranch poked the ball away from Jimenez, ensuing a wild scramble on the floor. Swist ultimately got to the ball, but slid out of bounds on the far sideline with 1.6 seconds left. 

Morris would get the ball off the inbounds and was immediately fouled with 0.7 seconds left - putting the Huskies in the double-bonus. He made the first one free throw, and on instruction from Coach Mosley (with a little help from Athletic Director Bobby Godinez standing baseline), missed the second one. Freshman F Imani Herring got a hand on the rebound and tipped the ball back towards the backboard, ensuring Santa Ana would have no chance as time ran out.

Barnes lead all ELAC scorers with 23 points on 8-11 shooting, adding five rebounds while shooting 5-6 from the line. Morris, who's become more of a sparkplug in recent weeks, had eight points with eight assists along with two steals. Herring had a double-double with 12 points and 14 rebounds (six offensive) - he also had three blocks.

HUSKY BITS

• Freshman PF Adrionne Marcus flashed his adept touch around the rim again, scoring 14 points off the bench hitting six of his seven shots. He also had eight boards (5 offensive).
• Sophomore G Landon Winston scored 11 points with five boards.
• ELAC dominated the paint to the tune of a 46-29 rebound advantage (22 offensive).
• While East did not shoot well from the line early, they kept getting there in the second half at a much higher rate than Santa Ana. The Huskies took 29 free throws (62.1%) compared to just nine for the Dons (66.6%).
• SAC's Aaron De Santiago led all scorers with 26 points, nailing 7-13 from downtown.

UP NEXT: 

Up the 101 ELAC goes to Ventura this Saturday to take on the Pirates at 7pm. The game will likely be streamed on their YouTube channel: check our social media posts for an official livestream link.