Pasadena boosted its playoff hopes while dealing a potentially devastating blow to Compton's postseason chances with a 76-63 win over the visiting Tartars Friday evening in SCC-North play at Hutto-Patterson Gynmasium in Pasadena.
With Friday's win and East LA's loss to first-place Mt. SAC, Pasadena (11-13, 3-2) moved into second place in the competitive SCC-North. And the Lancers are now a full game ahead of Compton (14-10, 2-3) which was ranked in SoCal's top 15 recently and which now falls into a third-place tie with East LA with two weeks left in the regular season.
Friday, Pasadena pulled away late in the first half to lead, 45-35, at the half, and led by at least nine points the entire second half. In fact, the final margin was hardly indicative of how the game was played as Pasadena opened a 22-point lead with 5:33 to go. Compton scored the game's last ten points to make the score look closer, but never threatened to catch up.
The game was played on even terms for the first 15 minutes or so. Pasadena took an early 12-5 lead. Compton rallied to get within two points at 15-13, but Pasadena stretched its lead back to six points at 19-13. At that point starting center Faruk Ayalade went to the bench with his 3rd foul of the game with 10:21 left in the first half.
Compton took full advantage, going on a 9-0 run to take a 22-19 lead on a 3-pointer by Michael Alexander. Pasadena went back in front, 23-22, but Compton took a lead one last time when Taurus D'Antignac scored off a pass from James Boyd to make it 24-23.
Pasadena took a 25-24 lead, and then began to pull away. Donell Tuff scored on a putback to stretch the Lancer lead to six at 31-25. A 3-pointer by Dejon Williams pushed the advantage to seven at 36-29 with 3:10 left in the first half. A steal & jam by Jonathan Henderson with just under a minute left in the half pushed the lead to eight, and a three-pointer about 30 seconds later by Henderson made it 46-35. Alexander split two free throws for Compton with six seconds left in the half to make it 46-36 at the break.
Tuff scored the first basket of the second half for Pasadena, but then Compton seemed to have a chance to get back in the game. Fred Jones entered the game for the first time and converted a 3-point play, with Oyalade picking up his fourth foul on the play. That brought the Tartars within nine points at 47-38 with 18:06 still left to play.
But instead of Compton getting back in the game, Pasadena widened its lead. A Henderson 3-pointer pushed Pasadena's lead back into double digits at 51-40 with just over 15 minutes left. Demetrius Overstreet and Jaryn Taylor followed with jumpers to make it 55-40.
Even when Compton coach Keith Higgins channeled his inner Bobby Knight and tossed a chair - just to be clear, he tossed it away from the court and it was in anger at his players, not the officials - and drew a technical foul, it failed to changed the momentum. Pasadena continued to pull away, with Taylor draining a three with 5:33 to push the margin to 22 points at 72-50 and remove any remaining doubt as to the game's outcome.
For Pasadena, Williams scored a team-high 22 pts and added 7 rebs, a game-high 7 asts and 2 steals. Henderson had 16 pts, including 3 three-pointers, plus 6 rebs and 3 asts. Tuff had a huge game with 15 pts, game-highs of 14 rebs and 5 blocks, plus 2 asts and 4 steals. Taylor came off the bench for 11 pts and 6 rebs.
For Compton, Boyd, the onetime USC football signee out of Jordan HS in LA, had his usual outstanding performance with a game-high 27 pts plus 13 rebs, 5 asts and 6 steals. But none of his teammates scored in double digits, and everyone besides Boyd combined to shoot 20.3% from the floor (14-for-69). Alexander had 9 pts, 6 rebs, 2 asts and 3 steals. Jayvon Brown had 7 pts, 10 rebs, 4 asts and 2 steals.
box score
Friday, February 6, 2015 - 5 pm
at Hutto-Patterson Gynmasium, Pasadena
SCC-North
Compton Tartars 63:
1-Taurus D'Antignac, PG - 2/11 fg, 5 reb, 6 ast, 1 stl, 4 pts
11-Jayvon Brown, SG - 3/20 fg, 0/2 ft, 10 reb, 4 ast, 2 stl, 1 pf, 7 pts
20-Zelford Lord, PF - 0/6 fg, 0/1 ft, 3 reb, 0 pts
22-Michael Alexander, SF - 3/13 fg, 2/7 ft, 6 reb, 2 ast, 3 stl, 1 pf, 9 pts
32-James Boyd, C - 11/20 fg, 5/7 ft, 13 reb, 5 ast, 6 stl, 4 pf, 27 pts
3-Larenzo Murphy, G - 2/10 fg, 1/4 ft, 5 reb, 2 stl, 2 pf, 6 pts
13-Chris Townsell, F - 2/4 fg, 3 reb, 1 ast, 1 stl, 3 pf, 5 pts
35-Joseph Henry, C - 0/1 fg, 1 reb, 0 pts
34-Jeffrey Holliday, F - 0 pts
24-Fred Jones, F - 2/3 fg, 1/1 ft, 2 reb, 1 blk, 1 stl, 2 pf, 5 pts
4-Arvel Boyd, G - 0/1 fg, 1 reb, 1 ast, 0 pts
team rebounds: 6
Totals: 25/89 fg (.281), 9/22 ft (.409), 55 reb, 19 ast, 1 blk, 16 stl, 14 pf, 63 pts
3-pt fg (4): Brown, Alexander, Murphy, Townsell
Technical Foul: J.Boyd, Coach Higgins
Turnovers (11): J.Boyd 4, D'Antignac 3, Brown 2, Holliday, Jones
Pasadena Lancers 76:
13-Keith Langston, SG - 2/8 fg, 1/2 ft, 4 reb, 2 pf, 6 pts
21-Dejon Williams, PG - 10/21 fg, 0/2 ft, 7 reb, 7 ast, 1 blk, 2 stl, 2 pf, 22 pts
23-Jonathan Henderson, SF - 5/12 fg, 3/4 ft, 6 reb, 3 ast, 1 stl, 3 pf, 16 pts
32-Faruk Oyalade, C - 1/3 fg, 7 reb, 1 ast, 1 blk, 5 pf, 2 pts
42-Donell Tuff, PF - 6/10 fg, 3/8 ft, 14 reb, 2 ast, 5 blk, 4 stl, 3 pf, 15 pts
14-Justin Fletcher, G - 2 reb, 2 ast, 0 pts
20-Demetrius Overstreet, G - 2/2 fg, 1 reb, 5 ast, 1 pf, 4 pts
50-Jaryn Taylor, F - 5/8 fg, 0/2 ft, 6 reb, 1 blk, 1 stl, 4 pf, 11 pts
24-Derrin Jenkins, G - 0/1 fg, 1 reb, 1 ast, 1 pf, 0 pts
team rebounds: 10
Totals: 31/65 fg (.477), 7/18 ft (.389), 58 reb, 21 ast, 8 blk, 8 stl, 21 pf, 76 pts
3-pt fg (7): Henderson 3, Williams 2, Langston, Taylor
Fouled Out: Oyalade 2:34 left
Turnovers (23): Williams 6, Langston 4, Taylor 3, Henderson 2, Oyalade 2, Tuff 2, Overstreet 2, Fletcher, Jenkins
Halftime Score: Pasadena 45, Compton 35
Updated Records: Pasadena 11-13, 3-2 in SCC-N; Compton 14-10, 2-3 in SCC-N
