East Los Angeles College dominated the Lady Roadrunners in the gym at Rio Hondo Friday night. The ELAC full-court pressure helped the Huskies escape The Hondo with the 81-58, 23-point victory.

The Lady Roadrunners offense looked frustrated with themselves trying to break the Huskies’ full-court press. ELAC’s aggressive defense allowed them to pick off passes and translate it to quick points on offense.

Rio was in the game heading into the fourth, only trailing by 7 at 57-50. The Huskies’ revved up their defense in the final period, though, and were able to distance themselves from the Rio Ladies.

ELAC only gave up eight points to Rio in the fourth quarter, and just two points in the final five minutes of play.

The score was 65-56 before Rio forward Destinee Garr fouled out for the second game in a row. The Huskies went on a 16-to-2 run to end the game after Garr exited the game.

“I think Destinee fouling out is a combination of [too much aggressiveness and calls not going her way],” Rio Hondo coach, Rene Herrera said following the loss. “She has to learn to position herself better defensively so she doesn’t get bad calls. She has to learn to adjust to what the refs are calling and that will prevent her from fouling out.”

Garr has played a lot the point guard position a lot for Rio the last few games. Today she had one of her better performances passing the ball despite the Huskies’ pressure.

“ELAC’s defensive pressure is tough to simulate. Not having a point guard due to injury makes it difficult for us to bring the ball up the court,” Coach Herrera explained. “Destinee has done a fabulous job bringing up the ball since we switched her to the point guard position. She had 10 assists today and when she fouled out ELAC was able to take advantage, which was why the score was a lot worse than what it should have been, had she not fouled out.”

Jaelynn Curley (13), Monica Garcia (14) and Domonique Godbolt (18) all finished with double-digits in points for the Huskies.

Forwards Maggie Lamas and Emily Mercedes led Rio Hondo’s offense. Lamas finished with 18 points while Mercedes tallied 15 of her own in the loss.

The 23-point defeat was the Lady Roadrunners second home loss of the week, and tenth loss in a row. The Lady Roadrunners have struggled but the long season is almost coming to an end.

“We are down to the final week and our game plan won’t change,” Coach Herrera said. “I tell our girls to compete and give 100% on both ends of the floor. We have made great progress but need to continue to get better.  We need to execute on offense and play great defense to give ourselves a chance to compete in the final week of basketball play.”

Rio plays the final games on their schedule this Wednesday and Friday night. The last game of the Rio Ladies’ season will be at home against Pasadena City College February 16 at 5 p.m.