Missed Opportunities Cause Huskies to get Nipped by Cerritos in Home Opener

by Cerwin D Haynes

(thumbnail by Mario Villegas)

Good teams often know how to put away their opponents. East LA Men's Basketball, ranked #18 in the state coming into tonight, are looked at as of those teams.

Unfortunately, they could not seize the opportunity to take care of a sluggish-scoring Cerritos College team when they had the chance. The Falcons chiseled away an 11-point ELAC lead, taking a one-point lead themselves into the final seconds. Denton Latimore missed a potential game-winning three-pointer with two seconds left, leaving East LA (2-2) on the agonizing short end of a 77-76 loss to Cerritos (3-2). Sophomore G/F Zyier Beverly lead the Huskies with 16 points off the bench along with eight rebounds.

With 10:10 left in the second half, East LA Men's Basketball were in the driver's seat against Cerritos College. The Huskies were up by 11, 58-47, and had Cerritos in the double-penalty (to wit: Cerritos commited six team fould in the first 2:30 of the second half). In short, ELAC looked like they were ready to exert full control of the game.

But instead of building their lead, they let the Falcons hang around. ELAC's lead stagnated in the single digits down the stretch, and that gave Cerritos enough time to finally find their rhythm over the last 10 minutes of the game. PG Darron Henry and G Blake Brewer began to cause major trouble for the Huskies. Henry scored seven straight Falcon points over a span of two minutes to whittle East LA's lead to three with 5:14 left. Still a three-point game with 4:22 left, East sophomore PG Kamren Williams would answer with a jumper, and after a Spencer Ezewiro bucket, Williams rang up a three-ball with 3:51 to go for a 70-64 lead. 

It looked like ELAC was ready to finally take full control, but Cerritos kept countering. Brewer converted a layup after Williams' three, and after Williams then missed on his next three-point shot, Henry drilled one of his own to bring the Huskies' lead to one, 70-69, with 2:59 left. Sophomore G/F Esteban Mann then drove inside for a tough layup to bump the Pack's lead back to three, but Henry responded with a tough lay-in to draw Cerritos again within a single point.

Mann would miss on a jumper and Marcel Hayes of Cerritos corraled the miss. The Huskies then tightened up their D on Henry, forcing him to miss on a jumper. But Mann got called for a loose-ball foul, and by this time both teams were in the double-penalty. Ezewiro sank both free throws to put East LA down by a point.

On ELAC's next possession, sophomore PG Donjae Lindsey missed an oper three-pointer from the far corner, and Cerritos got the team rebound. Back on defense, it looked like Beverly cleanly blocked Ezewiro's dunk attempt but got called for the foul. Ezewiro went one-for-two from the line and now the Huskies were down 74-72. ELAC's next possesion saw Mann drive into the paint again and covert a short floater to tie the game at 74.

But again, an offensive-awaked Cerritos had another answer: Henry, who almost was foced into into a backcourt violation, found Brewer on a pass on the far wing outside the arc. The Huskies got caught switching late on defense as Brewer sank an oper three to put ELAC in a 77-74 hole with 19 seconds left.

After a frantic Cerritos timeout (they barely got the timeout signal to the referees as the Huskies started to advance the ball upcourt), ELAC opted to try for the quick two. Williams brought the ball upcourt and passed to Lindsey in the paint, who weaved his way around two defenders to make a layup. Down one, 77-76 with 10.1 seconds left, ELAC was forced to foul Cerritos to stop the clock and send them to the line (Mann ended up having to commit the foul on Brewer, which unfortunately was his fifth, fouling out). But Brewer missed both attempts at the charity stripe, and the Huskies had one last chance. 

The scoreboard showed ELAC had one timeout left, but the Pack inbounded the ball and raced upcourt quickly. The ball found freshman G Denton Latimore in the far corner, and he tried for the game-winning three with two seconds left. The shot hit the front rim, and ELAC could not control the rebound for a last-second putback attempt.

HUSKY BITS

• ELAC seemed generate a good amount of shots close to or at the rim, but had a tough time converting. Overall they shot 42.9% in the first half, and 41.2% in the second. Conversly, Cerritos shot 37.9% in the front half but got hot in the second, shooting 57.7%.
• Mann had 13 points (4-7 FGs), including a made three, as his continues to show improved body control driving into the paint. Williams had 10 points on 4-7 shooting including 1-3 from downtown.
• The Huskies only had five assists on 26 made shots.

UP NEXT:

The Huskies will have a week to sort things out before they head out to Glendora to take on Citrus College next Wednesday at 5pm.