Martinez's Downtown Dagger Helps Huskies Tame Wildcats

by Cerwin D Haynes

East Los Angeles women's basketball (3-12) held serve on their home court in their first game of the 10th annual Okawa Classic, defeating the West Los Angeles College Wildcats 85-76 (7-4, #13 CCCWBCA South).

With a 79-66 lead with 3:18 left in the game, East LA College women's basketball attempted to milk the clock to preserve their lead. West LA College, however, had one last run in them - a 7-0 spurt fueled by defense, free-throw shooting and a made three-ball. The Huskies needed one more stop, then a good possession to chew up clock and then get a good shot off. They got the stop by way of a Kennedee Rankin steal off Wildcats F Angel Morris, then ran off 26 seconds of clock before Rankin found sophomore G Maria Martinez open in the right corner. Martinez squared up to the basket and rose up to shoot.

Nailed it.

The shot splashed through the net, and the Huskies were up nine with 53 seconds left. Morris tried to give West LA one last gasp as she made a three of her own with 47 seconds left, but freshman F Gabrielle Quintana followed up with making three of four free throws to ice the game. She finished with a game-high 25 points (10-13 FTs) four rebounds and three steals. Martinez, re-inserted today into the starting lineup, finished with six points (2-2 3PTs) and five steals.

The Pack opened the game shooting only 6-20 from the field in the first quarter, but built a 19-13 lead at the end of the quarter thanks to offensive rebounding (5-1 advantage) and getting to the charity stripe (5-9 FTs vs 1-2 FTs) more than West. They continued their aggression on the boards in the second quarter (eight offensive) and outshot the Wildcats (9-22 FGs vs 7-19 FGs) with a few timely three-pointers mixed in. In the third quarter, West LA stormed back by shooting 10-19 from the field while throwing off ELAC's offensive execution with full-court trapping, closing the period within four 60-56. The Huskies would respond in the final quarter by applying some defensive trapping of their own along with aggressive shot making by sophomore F Isabel Aranjo Gomez, scoring eight of her 20 points in the fourth. Rankin, a reserve freshman F, made her presence known on both ends in the fourth with four points, three rebounds, two assists and two steals. The home Green would take a 79-66 lead before WLAC made their final run that ultimately lead to Martinez's clutch shot.

HUSKY BITS

• Aranjo Gomez tallied a double-double, pulling down 13 boards to go with her 20 points.
• Rankin, the freshman out of Hamilton HS, scored 16 points, nine rebounds and a team-high five assists off the bench.
• TaianaMuagututia lead West LA with 22 points and 10 rebounds.

UP NEXT:

The Huskies will be the "road" team tomorrow as they take on College of the Canyons at 4pm, the second game on Day 2 of the Okawa Classic.