El Camino Struggles, But Wins

In a battle of the two best defensive teams in the South Coast Conference, the El Camino College men’s basketball team defeated Mt. San Antonio College, 63-55, Saturday night in Torrance.

Freshman forward Mark Johnson led El Camino (11-10 overall, 2-2 in conference play) with 22 points and sophomore forward Tyrone Paul had 15. Sophomore point guard Troy Williams added 13 points.

Mt. SAC’s top scorer, guard Joe Gonzales, was held to four points and its second-leading scorer, guard Matt Schuler, had 11. The Mounties (11-12, 0-4) were led by center Mark Greene, who had 16 points.

Ironically, it was solid free-throw shooting that secured the victory for El Camino. The Warriors are last in the league in free-throw shooting at 45%.

But they made six consecutive shots in the closing minutes on Saturday.

“I’m so afraid when we go to the line,” El Camino Coach Paul Landreaux said. “Sometimes it just scares me when we get fouled. Instead of using fouls to our advantage, we usually can’t.”

El Camino was trying to overcome the loss of Chris Hansen, a starter who quit the team after last week’s game against Long Beach City College. According to Landreaux, Hansen, a former El Segundo High standout, left the team so he could devote more time to his job. He averaged 10.7 points.

“It really hurt us,” Landreaux said.

El Camino struggled from the field against Mt. SAC, going through several spans without a point. The longest span--3 minutes 31 seconds--ended when Williams stole the ball and scored on a layup with 8:02 left in the first half.

Williams scored on two more layups to rally El Camino, which trailed throughout the first half, to within 21-18. The Warriors tied the score, 28-28, at halftime on a jump shot by Mike Reynolds.

The Warriors took their first lead when Paul made the first of two free throws in the opening minutes of the second half. A short jump shot by Schuler gave the Mounties their last lead, 30-29, with 17:09 left.

“The turning point was my half-time speech,” Landreaux said, laughing. “I told them we didn’t come out to play in the first half. I was excited to have the game tied at halftime. It was like starting over.”