Pasadena Hands El Camino 92-72 Loss

El Camino College basketball Coach Ron McClurkin wishes the Warriors were still playing the nonconference portion of their schedule.

Early in the season, the Warriors won several games against the state’s top community college teams. They entered South Coast Conference play with a 16-7 record, but league action has not been kind to the unranked Warriors.

On Saturday at El Camino, the Warriors lost their third conference game, 92-72, to unranked Pasadena City College.

The Lancers improved to 12-12 overall and 2-2 in the SCC. El Camino fell to 17-10 and 1-3.

“They were very aggressive, but our kids played great,” Pasadena Coach George Terzian said. “We got great play from our big guys early and that made the difference.”

Nothing seemed to work for El Camino. The Warriors led for the first five minutes of the game, but trailed for the remainder.

“We panicked,” McClurkin said. “We had the shots open, we just couldn’t make them. I knew going into this game that Pasadena was one of the best teams in the conference.”

It was a sloppy and low-scoring first half, but Pasadena gained control after the break. The Warriors had a difficult time getting the ball inside and were forced to take a majority of their shots from the outside.

The result was not good for the Warriors. With 7:58 left in the half, they trailed by 10 after Pasadena’s Chris Jones made a three-point basket. A dunk by freshman Steve King helped El Camino cut the Lancers’ lead to 34-29 at halftime.

Two minutes into the second half, the Warriors trailed by only three after King’s 15-foot jump shot. But the Lancers went on a 7-0 run and with 15:37 left for a 45-35 lead.

El Camino made one more run. With 11:18 remaining, sophomore Michael Houck made a three-point basket that brought the Warriors to within five. But the Lancers used a 9-0 run for a 58-46 lead with 8:41 left.

The Warriors never came closer than 10 after that. With 4:15 left they were down, 71-59, and with 2:24 remaining Pasadena increased its lead to 78-61.

“They couldn’t shoot as well as I thought,” Terzian said. “Maybe it was an off night for them, but they just didn’t shoot very well.”

Houck led the Warriors with 19 points and Darius Dubose, who missed last week’s game because of the flu, had 17 points in the second half. King and sophomore Keishaun Darthard each had 12 points.

Cal State Dominguez Hills 82, UC Riverside 71--The Toros needed last-second heroics in regulation and then overpowered Highlanders in overtime at Dominguez Hills.

Raymond Bennett and Brian Jones each scored 16 points to lead the Toros, who are 13-7 overall and 2-3 in California Collegiate Athletic Assn. play. Riverside, led by Anthony Jenkins’ 19 points, dropped to 15-4 and 3-2.