The JV Dons faced off against crosstown rivals Campolindo Tuesday night who came into the game with an impressive 17-2 record and 5-0 in league play.
Starting for the Dons were Freshmen Gavin Dodge and Josh Elerts, along with Sophomores Maddox Malm, Drew McKenzie, and JB Frolich. JB found Gavin for a three with the shot clock winding down on our first possession. Campo started off on fire, hitting their first two jumpers and connecting on what seemed like almost every shot in the period. Maddox found Gavin on a press break for a layup to make the score 5-8. Conor Hession checked in and quickly received a bomb from Gavin for a bucket. Junior Andy Moon hit two consecutive three’s for Campo as they went up 10. JB found Drew for two, Gavin hit Josh on the block for two more, and Gavin scored on another press break setup by Conor. Despite playing an aggressive full court man to man press the entire quarter, Campo miraculously had no fouls but both Josh (3) and Maddox (2) were already in foul trouble. 13-22 at end of quarter.
Gavin scored on a nice pull up jumper early in the second. Preston Hilsabeck, looked very confident out there last night, as he drilled a huge three on the assist from Gavin. But we just couldn’t get closer than 11 points all period and Campo started to pull away a little more by halftime, with only one team foul the entire half. Cameron Hood had a nice coast to coast finish for two. Conor made a big block on D and a bucket on an assist from Maddox to round out our scoring as we were down by 20, 22-42 at half.
For the half, Campo shot 59% from 2, 50% from 3, 56% overall and 91% from the line (11/12) and 3 turnovers. Acalanes was 50% from 2, 33% from 3, 45% overall, and 0% from the line as we had no free throws and 5 turnovers.
Dons made a charge back in the third as they started to match Campo’s physicality. Maddox hit Josh on a sideline inbounds play to start the quarter off right. Drew found Gavin for a big three. Maddox made an emphatic rejection on D and Josh took his man down low for two on the other end. Gavin and Maddox connected on a beautiful give-and-go with Gavin cutting down the middle for a finish. Over 20+ minutes into the game, Acalanes finally attempts it’s first free throws as Gavin connects on a pair to make the score 33-44. Again, we couldn’t get it under that 11 mark and Campo continued to answer. Alex added two free throws and we were down 13 headed into the fourth, 35-48.
The Dons threw one last punch, connecting on a Gavin to Maddox to Alex Butler score that put us back to down 11, 37-48, one last time before Campo went on a 12-0 run to finish us off. Josh scored on his own putback but other than that the fourth was all Campo and the final ended up being 40-64.
For the game, the Dons shot 13/30 (43%) on 2FG, 3/13 (23%) on 3FG, 16/43 (37%) overall and 5/6 (83%) from the line to go along with only 12 turnovers against constant pressure all night. Gavin had 16 points and 4 rebounds with Josh adding 8 points, 4 rebounds and 2 steals.
The Dons fall to 7-8 on the season and 3-3 in league play. Next up a Saturday special at home on 1/28 at 5:45pm against College Park (6-14, 0-7 league) who we defeated 66-56 earlier this season.
To watch recording of the game, click here: https://www.youtube.com/live/LxsUyegoEmQ?feature=share