The Dons took the show on the road to Moraga to battle a tough Cougars team. The Dons got off to a slow start digging a 7-0 deficit early until Avyn Morales got them on the board with a three. #11 paced the Cougars in the quarter with two nice 3’s but a Sam Bishop to Morales connection cut the score to 10-5 at the end of the first quarter.

Dylan Rocca continued his hot shooting with a top of the key three to narrow the gap to 10-8. The Cougars started to turn up the defensive pressure in the backcourt making it difficult to get good shots as the Dons started to stagnate on offense. #20 hit a 3 followed by a layup to put the Cougars up 15-8. A Bishop three got us back to 15-11 at one point but the Cougars D led to two more easy buckets and they were up 19-12 at the half.

We’ve been a good second half team all year so the fans were expecting the Dons to make a charge and they did not disappoint in the third. Morales and Braedon Christie buckets got us to within 22-16 and a carbon copy Rocca top of the key 3 made it 23-19. Christie steamrolled his way into the lane for another strong finish and Morales added one more bucket to bring us within two 25-23. Campo ended the quarter with a flurry of shots and had many opportunities on offensive rebounds but couldn’t convert and we had a nice setup for an epic finish.

Unfortunate start to the fourth as Bishop was called for a foul on what looked like a clean block from behind. That really changed the momentum of the game as Campo converted both free throws then followed it up with a three and another bucket to go up nine quickly 32-23. A Rocca patented runner narrowed the gap to 32-25 but that’s as close as we would get the rest of the way. The Cougars applied full court pressure and completely locked the Dons down on D forcing many turnovers that led to easy uncontested layups. Bishop made a nice play passing it to Morales as he was falling down to get the last bucket at 41-27. The Cougars added a few more for the proverbial nail in the coffin and the final was 47-27.

The Boys fought hard as always and should be proud of their overall effort, they just came up a quarter short. The Dons have struggled with full court pressure and aggressive, trapping defenses all year as this has been the one common thread in all of our losses by bigger margins. I believe if they can crack the code on this facet of the game the sky is the limit for this squad as they can use their opponents aggression against them and generate some easier looks on offense.

The Dons were lead by Morales with 11, while Rocca added 8 points on 3 for 4 shooting and Christie chipped in 5.

The Dons drop to 1-2 in league play and 4-7 overall. We take the travelling road show to College Park next on Thursday, January 20th at 4pm before returning home to host De La Salle on Saturday, January 22nd at 1pm.

***Please note, in prior articles our research department made an error in the calculation of the Dons’ overall record. This has now been corrected and we sincerely apologize to all our fans for any inconvenience. We are honored to be your trusted news source and will strive to do better.