The JV Dons (8-9 overall, 4-4 in league) embarked on a four game road trip beginning with a Saturday night special at Las Lomas (12-12 overall, 4-5 in league) coming into this contest.  The Knights were looking to avenge their loss earlier in the season in Lafayette 54-50.

Starters in this one were Freshmen Gavin Dodge and Josh Elerts, along with Sophomores JB Frolich, Matthew Bacon, and Maddox Malm making his return from a knee sprain.  JB had it going early with the and-1 off an assist from Matthew.  Las Lomas Frosh Aiden Williams (#5) also had it going too as he answered with a three.  Maddox had a nice swat on D and JB finished with the left for the momentary 5-3 lead.  Three’s were flying for the Knights and they connected on two back-to back, another from Aiden and one from #33, to go up 4 before Maddox answered with a three of his own.  Las Lomas would hit 6 three’s in the period including 3 from Aiden.  Some other Dons highlights were a nice block from Matthew and a JB bucket at the buzzer as the Knights were up 9 early, 13-22.

Gavin got us on the board in the second with a pretty baseline move and Conor Hession struck gold on a banked in three to close the gap to 18-25.  JB had another nice pump fake and finish but the Knights responded immediately with a deep bomb and easy layup.  Matthew had a big offensive rebound to keep it alive that ended with a Gavin floater to trim it to nine, 22-31.  Acalanes was then assessed one of the strangest technicals I have seen for some confusion over where the 16th player on our roster was located in the official scorebook.  Las Lomas converted 1/2 and fortunately that was not the difference in this one.  The half closed out with another huge Matthew rejection on D and a Gavin runner to make it 24-32 going into the break.

The Dons came out with a vengeance going on a 12-0 run to surge into the lead.  Josh started us off with a steal and then went to work in the paint as Maddox kept feeding The Junkyard Dog from the point with Josh converting two buckets during that stretch.  Matthew recorded his third block of the night!  The Dons tied it at 32 after Gavin converted two free throws on a technical on Aiden #5 and JB hit two from the stripe in that same possession.   Josh scored inside again and Maddox had a sweet, lefty finish for the 36-32 lead!!!  The block party continued with Josh denying the Knights next and with Drew McKenzie with the definitive block of the evening, a track down play on Aiden as time expired.  It was a poor end of the quarter for the Dons though as they gave up the last 5 points and were down 1 going into the fourth, 36-37.  

Alex Butler got us the lead back with a rebound and putback.  Then Josh converted 1/2 at the line as we were up 39-37 but that’s when the Dons ran out of gas.  The Knights ripped off the next 9 points to go up 39-46.  Maddox found Josh inside again to trim it to 6.  Matthew added a bucket before going down with a knee injury with only a minute remaining on the clock.  The Deflated Dons made one last charge with a JB steal off an inbounds pass that led to Drew splitting a pair but that was all we could muster and the final was 44-53.

As a team, the Dons shot 15/31 (48%) on 2FG, 2/19 (11%) on 3FG, 17/50 (34%) overall and 8/11 (73%) from FT to go along with 23 rebounds and only 11 turnovers.  JB led the way with a team high 14 points on 5/8 shooting, 4/4 from FT, 4 rebounds and no turnovers.  Josh had 9 points and 5 rebounds while Gavin had 8 points and 5 rebounds.

The Dons fall to 8-10 overall, 4-5 in league play.  Three games left, all on the road, with the next one coming Tuesday 2/7 at Northgate at 6pm, then Thursday 2/9 at Miramonte at 6pm, and the grand finale Saturday 2/11 at Campolindo at 4:30pm.

As a reminder, all stats can be found at MaxPreps: https://www.maxpreps.com/ca/lafayette/acalanes-dons/basketball/jv/stats/

Thanks for all your support and GO DONS!!!