Despite COVID-19 Obstacles, East LA, SCC Men's Basketball Stays Strong
No South Coast Conference sport was affected more by the COVID-19 pandemic than basketball. It was the first sport that had its state tournament taken away just hours before the women's quarterfinals were to begin back in March, 2020. Then a full season in 2020-2021 was cancelled. Even the return in this 2021-22 season has had its series of ups and downs, including numerous postponements coinciding with the surge in positive cases, a new variant in Omicron, and a December-January flu season to boot.
In men's basketball, East Los Angeles College became a national streaming sensation in 2019-2020 thanks to the Netflix show Last Chance U, but its best chance to win a state title was dashed two years ago when the state tournament was canceled a day before the quarterfinals. The then top-seeded Huskies, 29-1 and on a 25-game winning streak, had an incredible season end abruptly and without the reward. In returning to the floor in 2021-22, ELAC may not be as dominating, but certainly is in the mix as a state title contender.
Ranked currently #9 in the state, the 5-time defending champs of the SCC North Division opened 2022 conference play by getting past LA Trade-Tech, 74-65, on Jan. 21. The Huskies (16-4 overall) have won eight since losing to Riverside, 71-70, and Citrus, 101-99 in overtime in mid-December. In the new year, ELAC twice posted triple-digit scores in winning SCC crossovers against El Camino, 111-43, and Compton, 113-69.
Against Trade Tech, 7-foot-1 center Bryan Penn-Johnson made 10 of 11 shots from the field to score 23 points while grabbing 12 rebounds. The team is third in the state in FG percentage at 52.1 accuracy. In the win over El Camino, the Huskies may have set some sort of record for most bench players scoring points as 11 reserves scored baskets showing their tremendous depth. It was also the first home game for ELAC in 22 months.
Challenging ELAC in the North this season is state #22-ranked Mt. San Antonio (12-4). The Mounties opened division play Jan. 19 by routing Pasadena City, 92-62, behind 20 points from Jamal Edmonson. Mt. SAC guard Shaquil Bender is second in the entire SCC in scoring at 19.4 points per game. The rest of the SCC has fallen on hard times with Pasadena, LA Trade Tech and Rio Hondo all struggling with identical 1-14 records.
In the SCC South Division, unranked Compton (7-8 overall) has emerged as the early leader at 2-0. The Tartars upset state #21-ranked LA Harbor, 97-92, in the conference opener last week, then had a monster 44 points by transfer Gabriel Ajemian (played at Pasadena as a freshman) in a 116-82 win over El Camino. Ajemian was 15-for-17 from the floor and 12-of-15 from the free throw line.
State 30th-rated Cerritos (9-6) upset #24 LA Southwest, 89-78, on Jan. 19 in its division opener as Juice Belvin poured in 29 points off the Falcons bench. On Monday, LASW (12-5) responded with the state's highest scoring game of the year as the Cougars outraced LA Trade-Tech, 125-110. SCC-leading scorer Brandon Fredrick put on a clinic as he sank nine 3-pointers as part of his 45 points. Fredrick, who scored 42 in a 100-93 division win over Long Beach City (Jan. 21), is fourth in the state in scoring at 24.9 points per contest. Harbor (9-5) makes the SCC South a wide open, 4-team race and is led by Demetrius Douglas, averaging 17.9 points. LBCC (8-9) is 1-1, a win over El Camino, but is also a threat in any divisional game.
Unlike ELAC's stranglehold in the North, the SCC South has seen co-champs in each of the last two seasons (2018-19 and 2019-20), but Cerritos had a share of both titles and was the last sole South champion in 2017-18.
Release by Robert Lewis, SCC SID