The 3-6 Dons (ranked 98th in the MaxPreps SF Metro rankings) took up arms against the Concord Minutemen (2-9, ranked 209th) in a Diablo League Friday night matchup. This was a nice break from finals and all the last minute holiday craziness on the streets and in stores.
It took less than a minute for the Dons to jump all over the Minutemen, starting up 9-0 and finishing the quarter 16-3. Concord was unable to get any good looks on offense and the Dons were carving them up with beautiful passing and domination on the glass.
All the boys were ready to go at a moment’s notice as we poured it on in the second and Coach Powers started to funnel in the entire roster. We went into halftime up 36-5 with Liam Krackeler (8 pts, 4 rebs, 2 asst, 1 blk), Jordan Brown (2 pts, 5 rebs, 4 asst, 1 stl), and Ian Salmon (4 pts, 3 rebs, 2 asst, 2 stl) leading the charge as everyone was stuffing their stockings with STATS.
We barely won the third but were still up 51-19 going into final period. The Minutemen were firing at the whites of our eyes for a brief stint, hitting four three’s in the period.
We opened the fourth with an all-Senior lineup of Liam, Jordan, Cooper Edelman, Jake Elerts, and Conor Hession that was really fun to watch. Everyone had presents under the tree to open and there was no coal to be seen as every player played and scored. Full stat sheet below.
Interestingly, out of 253 teams in the SF Metro Area according to MaxPreps, the Dons (98th) have the 14th toughest strength of schedule thus far and it is not getting any easier with games against Serra (22nd), Washington (66th) and Clayton (16th) tripleheader to start the new year. We beat Vintage (77th) in the opener and other wins came against Windsor (107th) and De Anza (120th). We’ve lost to some really good squads including Monte Vista (5th), St. Ignatius (7th), Dougherty Valley (24th). All those were games where we had really poor starts but won or played them even after that. The other three losses came against Las Lomas (37th), Valley Christian (41st), and Piedmont (69th) – all of which were very close winnable games.
Next up for the Dons (ranked 463rd in CA) is a tough matchup against D1 Santa Fe Christian (ranked 227th in CA) at The Holiday Classic in San Diego. First year coach Matt Carlino has a trio of guards that will score from all levels. Senior Brycen Mackenzie, who recently committed to Northwest Nazarene, leads the way. Mackenzie will be flanked by fellow senior Greyson Mundis and sophomore Dax Hall. Tipoff will be at 7pm on 12/27 at Francis Parker High School.
All games will be televised live on BallerTV: https://www.ballertv.com/events/torrey-pines-holiday-classic-2023-san-diego-ca-c3a4dc70aec789f51f3fde1a11a44102
Full Stat Sheet
Jordan Brown, 8 pts, 5 rebs, 5 asts, 2 stls
Ian Salmon, 8 pts, 6 rebs, 2 asts, 2 stls
Liam Krackeler, 10 pts, 4 rebs, 2 blks, 2 stls, 1 asst
Gavin Dodge, 2 pts, 2 rebs, 1 ast
Maddox Malm, 5 pts, 1 reb, 1 stl
Joe Reidenbach, 13 pts, 6 rebs
Preston Hilsabeck, 2 pts, 3 rebs, 2 asts
Cameron Hood, 6 pts, 1 stl
Ryder Malm, 4 rebs, 1 blk, 1 stl
Cooper Edelman, 4 pts, 3 rebs, 2 asts
Conor Hession, 7 pts, 1 reb
Jake Elerts, 2 pts, 3 rebs, 2 asts
JB Frolich, 2 pts, 1 reb
Photos by the Lovely and Talented Nicole Malm:
