El Camino Shocked by Mt. SAC--Again

El Camino College basketball players had a look of disbelief on their faces Saturday night. For the second time this season, the last-place team in the five-member South Coast Conference, Mt. San Antonio College, had beaten the ninth-ranked Warriors, this time 62-55.

“Apparently Mt. SAC has a better team than El Camino,” said Warrior Coach Ron McClurkin. “They’ve outplayed us twice. They just played better than we did.”

The Mounties (6-17, 2-3) made nine free throws in the closing minutes to hand El Camino its third conference loss. The Warriors fell to 2-3 and 17-7 overall.

“We were ready to play,” said Mt. SAC Coach Ralph Osterkamp, whose team defeated the Warriors, 60-58, in Torrance on Jan. 6. “I think we played very good. They played well, too, though.”

But not well enough. Only two Warriors scored in double figures, David Keeter and Jamal Ross, who each had 12.

With 12:36 left in the first half, Mt. SAC took 13-12 lead after a three-pointer by Tony McGee. El Camino managed to break away to a 27-23 lead with 4:59 to go, but the Mounties surged ahead, 29-27, on Lamont Keller’s 10-foot jumper with 1:28 left.

Sophomore forward Steve Leary, who was fouled by Mt. SAC’s Scott St. Clair at the buzzer, sank two free throws to tie the score 29-29 at halftime.

The Warriors fell behind in the opening minutes of the second half. With 6:13 remaining, they trailed by seven after Mt. SAC’s John Moses sank a pair of free throws.

The Warriors cut the deficit to three, 53-50, on a Darius Dubose three-pointer with 2:30 left to play, but Mt. SAC’s McGee drove into the key for a bank shot with 1:13 left to give the Mounties a five-point edge.

Then Keeter fouled Moses, who sank both free throws with 58 seconds left to secure the victory.

The Warriors host Pasadena at 8 p.m. Wednesday.