LA Harbor Women's Basketball On Upswing
In the 1990s, Los Angeles Harbor College was on top of the heap in South Coast Conference women's basketball. The Seahawks won five SCC titles during the decade, including three straight from 1993-1995. By the 2000s, Harbor turned into a losing program before going dormant for a 5-year period from 2009-2013.
After returning as a program in 2014, Harbor has endured some more tough seasons until showing some signs of improvement last season when they finished 12-16 and a modest 4-6 in division play.
This season, the Seahawks are continuing their rise to becoming a respectable program under head coach Albert Turner. Harbor is right now above .500 at 13-12 and currently in third place in the SCC South Division, now at 4-3. The Seahawks won three straight conference games, including a win over second-place El Camino, 56-52, last week.
Harbor is led by center Brionn Turner, averaging 17 points, 13 rebounds, and 3.3 blocks per game.
CONFERENCE RACE UPDATES
Long Beach City College, now ranked No. 20 in the sports information director's state rankings, clinched at least a tie for the SCC South Division title at 8-0. The Vikings can win the crown outright with a victory over Harbor on Feb. 19. It is LBCC's seventh conference title and first since 2017 when it was a co-champion with El Camino. Long Beach is on a 10-game winning streak overall.
The SCC North Division features three ranked teams in No. 8 Mt. San Antonio (5-1 in division play), No. 15 Pasadena City (4-2) and No. 16 Rio Hondo (4-3)
Mt. SAC maintains a one game lead over PCC with two games remaining in the regular season. Rio Hondo suffered its second loss in SCC play v. unranked LA Trade Tech. Unrated East Los Angeles sent PCC to double overtime but its 86-82 loss have the Huskies occupying last in the wildly-competitive division. This week, Mt. SAC has to get by host ELAC and then face Pasadena in the division finale on Feb. 21.
PCC has no easy task to catch the Mounties as they host Trade Tech tonight. Rio Hondo still has a mathematical chance of sharing the title but would first need PCC and Mt. SAC to lose their Wednesday contests and then beat ELAC on Friday while having the Lancers defeat the Mounties. If that occurs, all three teams would share the SCC North title. Mt. SAC can earn at least a share of the title with just more win and could capture the title outright tonight with a win over ELAC coupled with a PCC loss to Trade Tech.
Pasadena can win the title outright with two wins and two Mt. SAC losses.
In state RPI, the SCC North continues to show its strength with Mt. SAC #5, Pasadena #12, Rio Hondo #14, East LA #22, and Trade Tech #24. Long Beach is next among conference teams at #25.