By Jonathan Bermudez
The men’s basketball team heads to the state championships in San Jose after winning the Southern California Regional finals against LA Harbor College 99-91.
The Huskies started off strong, scoring within the first minute of the game.
The first score was achieved by Corey Cofield, number 11, scored the point with a layup. He followed that with another layup.
Within the first minute of the game, the Huskies were ahead by six points.
Harbor showed resistance by being the first team to score a 3-pointer.
The shot was made by Harbor’s number 1, Demetrius Douglas.
Both teams scored multiple layups and a slam dunk.
The teams battled hard during the first period, but the Huskies maintained the lead the whole time.
By the end of the first period the score was 42-37.
After the halftime the Huskies came back a different team.
The energy they started with in the first period disappeared and Harbor scored multiple points.
They missed multiple shots and committed multiple personal fouls.
Harbor kept a close game with the Huskies multiple times in the second period.
The Huskies played hard to keep the lead, but Harbor proved to be a strong opponent.
In the game, Cofield started to argue over a foul that was called by the referees.
Huskies coach John Mosley, kept his players calm despite many showing frustration over the calls being made.
During this period there were so many personal fouls, it felt like most of the points were penalty shots.
However, both teams were still able to pull off impressive shots.
Harbor scored multiple 3-pointers that brought them closer and closer to becoming the dominant team.
Huskies player JT Langston, number 20, made a slam dunk and Noel Scott, number 2, made multiple jump shots.
Toward the end of the second half, the score kept teetering back and forth. The Huskies would get the lead, but Harbor would surpass them.
With six seconds left in the game ELAC was able to tie with Harbor by scoring a free throw.
Both teams couldn’t score due to the time that was left. This lead the game into overtime.
The second half ended with a tie 82-82.
At this point, the crowd stood up from their seats in anticipation of the game.
Overtime had the entire audience in the stands going. The tension from both the audience and teams on the court was palpable.
The Huskies and Harbor teams started overtime playing harder than normal time.
Jon Sanders, Huskies player number 10, broke the tie by making a 3-point jump shot.
The Huskies continued making big shots and widened the lead with Harbor.
This put them at 91-84 with Harbor only able to score a layup.
Harbor would score, but it wouldn’t be enough.
ELAC kept the lead and, by the end of overtime, the score was 99-91. The state championship game will be in San Jose on Mar 9 at 1 p.m.