Howard Leads Blazing Offense in Win over Long Beach

TORRANCE, Calif. – Sophomore Jamal Howard led all scorers as El Camino College's offense caught fire in a 73-70 South Coast Conference, South Division win over Long Beach Wednesday night at the ECC Gym Complex.

Howard led the Warriors with 23 points, missing just three shots on the night. He hit all three of his 3-pointers and also grabbed nine rebounds with three steals. Howard was part of an offense that shot 57.7 percent on the night. The team took just six 3-pointers and made five of them en route to victory.

Rashon Crutcher and Darrian Williams-Youngblood each scored 13 points and Jason Vasquez added 10 with seven rebounds.

Kester Ofoegbu led all scorers with 27 points for Long Beach while hauling in 10 rebounds. Matthew Schmidt scored 16 points, Aaron Jelks had 13 and Khieem Williams scored 11 in the loss.

The Warriors led by as many as 12 points in the second half before the Vikings started clawing back. They would cut the lead down to 66-65 and 69-68 but the Warriors never gave up the lead. Vasquez hit a jumper with 2:22 left to put the Warriors up 71-68 and then Williams-Youngblood's layup with 1:36 left put ECC up 73-68.

Schmidt scored with 39 seconds left to bring the Vikings within three and then the Warriors turned the ball over on their ensuing possession, giving the Vikings a chance to tie. But Howard blocked a layup from Jelks with 20 seconds left and then Stephon Leonard missed a 3-pointer with 16 seconds left, giving the ball back to ECC.

The Vikings had to foul twice to put the Warriors at the free-throw line but David Henderson missed the front end of a one-and-one with seven seconds left, giving the ball back to Long Beach. The Vikings were out of timeouts so they had to go quickly. Ofoegbu got a look at a jumper from inside the arc with two seconds left, which would not have done the Vikings any good trailing by three.

It was a moot point, though, as Williams-Youngblood blocked the shot attempt to seal the victory for ECC.

Wednesday's victory was the team's first win over Long Beach since February 8, 2017 when the Warriors downed the Vikings 123-119 at the old ECC North Gym. The win snapped a four-game losing streak to Long Beach.

The Warriors return to action Friday on the road against Compton. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.