On Thursday the Dons faced College Park in a road League matchup. The Dons brought home a victory behind 22 points from Theo Stoll, 14 from Noah Bloch, and 11 points and 19 rebounds from Jake Davis. It required a solid defensive effort across the team as some hot Falcon shooting put Acalanes in a 13 point deficit early. However, the Dons persevered and tightened up their game to mount a steady comeback for the win.
GAME RECAP:
Noah Bloch opened the scoring by putting back his own miss, but CP was out to a quick 2-7 lead. Continuing the theme Jake got the second basket on a putback as well. Noah and Theo Stoll added nice driving layups to keep it a 4 point game, but CP maintained a lead with some very hot shooting. Justin Zegarowski added a nice floater after an offensive rebound late in the quarter but Acalanes still trailed 10-18.
Theo opened the Q2 scoring with a 3 and Zubin Acuna quickly followed with a jumper off a feed from Jake and then Jake got a jumper of his own. Theo banged home another 3 off yet another rebound from Jake and the shots were starting to fall for Acalanes. Jake followed that with an and 1 to cut it to 6. Colin Norstad got into the action with a nice putback and Acalanes went into the half down 25-31 but with the momentum on their side.
Tate Nelson opened Q3 with a 3 off the zipper play but a few stops by the Dons didn’t turn into buckets at the other end until Noah hit a jumper and then a block from Jake turned into Jack getting fouled in transition and a FT, then a steal and score from Noah on the inbound to make it a 1 point game. Theo hit Jake for an alley-oop layup next time down and after an Acalanes stop Noah got fouled on a 3 and made 1 to get it to a 2 point game once again. After a solid defensive stand Theo knocked down another big 3 to give the Dons their first lead 39-38 and then converted a floater to take a 3 point lead and scooped one after some tough post defense from Justin to push it to 5. CP scored to end the quarter but Acalanes had come back to take a 3 point lead at end Q3.
Theo opened Q4 cooking his defender baseline for a layup. Another nice defensive effort led to Zeg finding Jake for 2 underneath as the Dons got it to 7. A swat from Zeg gave the Dons the ball back and Noah canned a triple for a 10 point lead. CP got a couple quick ones to make it a 5 point game and led to TO from Coach Powers. Noah steadied the ship with a runner, followed by another stop from the Dons, as Jake collected his 19th rebound. Theo evaded an intentional foul to get an and 1 scoop and after another board CP was in foul mode again. Theo calmly knocked down a couple FTs and Jack Bayless got a press break layup to maintain the lead and the Dons won 59-49 after the early 13 point deficit.