By Tadzio Garcia
Los Angeles Trade Technical College women’s basketball team stunned visiting East Los Angeles College’s women’s team, 64-59, in a South Coast Conference North Division matchup last night.
As a result ELAC drops to 11-7 overall and sits in fourth-place out of five teams in the SCC North Division.
“We obviously need to come together as a team, learn from our mistakes and bounce back from this loss. Trade Tech wanted it more than us. Plain and simple,” ELAC guard Taylor Smith said.
Trade Tech (7-7, 2-1) is tied for second place in the SCC North Division with Pasadena City College (13-5, 2-1) behind leader Mt. San Antonio College (15-4, 3-0). Mt. SAC, Pasadena and Long Beach City College are SCC teams all ranked higher than ELAC.
The Huskies entered the game as the state’s No. 18-ranked team while Trade Tech posted a losing record.
Throw out all records when crosstown rivals ELAC and Trade Tech meet.
Trade tech outplayed, outmuscled and outhustled ELAC in shooting, rebounding, assists, steals and blocked shots for the stunning upset.
“We were out (of) control. On defense, we were not quite communicating (with) each other. Trade Tech played with a lot of energy and were aggressive. They played like a team for 40 minutes and that’s how you get the results they got,” ELAC center Karina Ortiz said.
Shooting free throws, Trade Tech more than doubled the Huskies points. Trade Tech shot 17-of-25 at-the-line to eight-of-15 for ELAC.
Perfect at the line were ELAC’s guard Dioseline Lopez as well as Trade Tech’s guard Patrice Darden and forward Adriana Anderson.
Trade tech shot 60 percent to ELAC’s 54 percent from behind the 3-point line.
The Huskies trailed the game until tying the game at 35 in the second half.
The short-lived tie was quickly erased after a technical foul was called on Bruce Turner for asking an unidentified referee a question.
The crowd of 125 shouted approval during Trade Tech’s 11- 4 run and a 46-39 lead with 14 minutes left in the game followed by an 18-8 run from ELAC. Down 57-54 eight with 6:02 left in the game was the closest ELAC got.
ELAC was led in scoring by guard Jocelyn Diaz who scored nine points. Huskies Ortiz and guard Jasmine Gates scored seven points each while guard Monique Salcido came off the bench to also score seven points of her own.
Trade Tech was led by Anderson who had a double-double (15 points, 16 rebounds) and guard Tasheba Henery and forward Kimberlyn Vigen who both scored 15 points.
The victory over Trade Tech was preceded with a 74-48 win at El Camino College Compton Center on January 10 in front of a large vocal crowd.
“The big crowd was so loud that we started off slow. We adjusted to the noise, played the game we were trained for and won big,” ELAC guard Angelica Trinidad said.
After eight road games, ELAC hosts its first home game against Cerritos College at 7 p.m. tomorrow night in the men’s gym.