Friday saw the (delayed) opening of league play with the Dons taking on the Las Lomas Knights at home. Jake Davis opened the scoring with a post layup on a nice pass from Jack Bayless over the top and Justin Zegarowski added 2 on sweet fast break dish from Zubin Acuna to get Acalanes off to a strong start. Las Lomas got an early 3 and a free throw from their own Jake Davis to tie it at 4. Jake Davis (from now on Jake) added a bucket on a nice lob from Theo Stoll, but the Knights Jake Davis (from now on just Davis) countered with a 3. The Dons continued to spread the offense around with Zeg getting a pull up bucket and Bayless 2 free throws but Davis continued to get buckets for the Knights pushing it to a 10-15 advantage. Jake got another lob on an inbounds to make it 12-15 to end Q1.
The Dons started Q2 with Bayless hitting Jake for another bucket inside on a nice lefty finish, but Davis stayed hot for LL maintaining the lead. Jake added 2 more inside, but the LL squad made plays right back maintaining the 5 point advantage. Jake and Davis traded baskets twice more, with the Dons defense effectively shutting down the other Knights. A late 3 from Jake made it a 25-28 game at half.
The second half opened with Jack getting a layup on a feed from Jake and then Zeg hitting a huge corner 3. LL countered a Bayless bucket after that, then Zubin hit his first 3 from the corner to keep it a 3 point game at 35-38. After some strong defense from both teams that kept it a lower scoring quarter overall, Jake got his second 3 of the game to tie it up 38-38.
LL opened the scoring in Q4 with 2 FT, but The Dons got an and 1 from Jake to take their first lead of the half, 41-40. The game heated up from there with LL getting more FT, then Zubin got hot, as Jake fed him for a corner 3 and tipped a rebound to him for a floater. After some great team defense from the Dons Zuuuuubin banged another one from deep to give the Dons a 49-46 lead, and the fans were FIRED UP. LL got a transition bucket, but then hot hand Zubin banged home a step back 3 and was FEELING IT along with the crowd as the Dons took a 52-48 lead. After more good defense holding the Knights scoreless, Las Lomas was forced to foul, and sent Theo Stoll the line for a 1 and 1. He calmly knocked down both for a 6 point lead. That lead would prove to be important as the Knights got a couple of putbacks late but the Dons were able to hold on for the 54-52 win to go 1-0 in league play. The Acalanes Jake Davis led all scorers with 25, Zubin Acuna had 14 and Zeg had 7. Good win Dons!
