El Camino Rallies for 66-61 Win

El Camino College’s roller coaster basketball season hit a high Saturday with a 66-61 road victory over Pasadena City College in a South Coast Conference opener.

The Warriors have struggled in their past five games and started slowly against Pasadena, which was missing four key players. But the victory was welcomed by Coach Paul Landreaux, who watched the Warriors improve to 10-8 overall. Pasadena is 13-9.

Warrior point guard Troy Williams made two free throws with 15 seconds remaining to secure the victory.

Pasadena outscored El Camino, 11-3, to take a 61-59 lead with a little more than two minutes remaining.

A short jump shot by Mark Johnson and three free throws by Williams turned the game around.

Johnson was the game’s leading scorer with 23 points and Williams had 11. Center Mike Reynolds added 17 points and Tyrone Paul had 11.

“We wanted to get them in an up-tempo game,” Landreaux said. “I know they like a controlled game. It worked.”

Both teams started slowly. Each had scoreless periods of at least three minutes in a sloppy first half.

El Camino led, 28-26, at halftime. Paul, the league’s best rebounder and one of the Warriors’ top scorers, had three fouls at the break. He picked up his fourth with 12:34 left.

El Camino picked up the pace in the second half, opening with a 12-4 run. Pasadena had a difficult time with the Warriors’ full-court press.

“I think the press was the turning point of the game,” Landreaux said. “We got them to make mental mistakes with it.”

Pasadena was led by guard Chris Bush, who scored 21 points. Raymond Mayberry added 14 and Jerry Majors had 12.

“We just didn’t take advantage of some opportunities,” Pasadena Coach George Terzian said. “They were playing really well at the start of the second half and we had a tough time with it.”

El Camino will play Cerritos, the state’s top-ranked team, in an SCC game at El Camino on Wednesday.