Lacey’s Game-Winner Lifts Warriors past L.A. Pierce

TORRANCE, Calif. – Da'Koda Lacey hit a go-ahead bucket with 0.7 seconds left to lift El Camino College to a 110-109 victory over L.A. Pierce in a nonconference game Wednesday night at the ECC North Gym.

On a night when the Warriors (3-7) honored Jonathan Baxter with a pregame ceremony, the team rallied to snap its four-game losing streak in dramatic fashion. Lacey finished with just seven points on two field goals but his last was the biggest bucket of the game as he took a half-court pass from Ricky Bryant under the basket and hit a layup to put the Warriors up by one with just under a second left in the game. The Brahmas (3-6) had one last half court heave at the bucket but missed high off the backboard to secure the win for ECC.

Tristan Egans led the Warriors with 21 points on 8-for-15 shooting, drilling five 3-pointers in the win. Justin Reyes was lethal from distance, going 5-for-7 on 3-pointers for his 15 points on the night and Eduardo Murillo cleaned up the glass with a team-high 13 rebounds.

Ricky Bryant led all Warriors with five assists as the team finished with 25 helpers on 40 made field goals.

The first half went back and forth early as the teams traded the lead 10 times in the opening 20 minutes. But ECC built a nine-point lead by halftime and led by as much as 13 in the game. The Warriors led for the majority of the second half and held a 10-point lead with 4:37 left in the game.

That's when the Brahmas made their charge, going on a 9-0 run to cut the Warriors lead to just one with 2:33 left in the game. The Brahmas would outscore the Warriors 16-2 in a 3:26 span to take a four-point led with 71 seconds left in regulation.

The Warriors picked themselves up and tied things up with four straight points and, after Rueben Gonzalez hit two free throws to put L.A. Pierce up by two, Lacey went to the line with a chance to tie things up.

He hit the first free throw but missed the second with 34 seconds left. The Warriors held firm on defense to get a stop as Bryant forced a miss from Gonzalez with six seconds left. Bryant grabbed the board, ran up to the half court line and sent a pass to Lacey in the paint, who sank the shot to put ECC up for good.

The Warriors will return to action Friday evening as they host Mount San Antonio. Tipoff is set for 5 p.m.