This Dons squad continues to improve and, although it hasn’t translated to many wins just yet, this team feels dangerous and I mean that in the best way possible. Friday night brought the Ygnacio Valley Wolves (17-5, 8-0 in League) into town and this was easily the most well attended home game the entire season by the ACA Students who took up an entire half court of the bleachers, standing most of the game.
The Dons took an early 3-2 lead when Brady Quinn found Jordan Brown for the corner three. But we’d be playing catch-up the rest of the night from that point on. The Wolves made an effort utilize their size advantage inside, feeding their 6’10” Center often who scored a few times in the post including a thunderous two hand slam. Maddox Malm had one of his nicest drives of the year finishing with a high arcing left hand floater over the outstretched arms of the big man. Gavin Dodge scored on two drives, one from Jordan and another on a give-and-go with Liam Krackeler. We survived the first, down 20-14.
The Wolves went straight back to the post in the second but wait…it’s a bird, it’s a plane…it’s 6’8″ Sophomore Ryder Malm with an emphatic rejection on the big man! Gavin found Cameron Hood in the paint for the pretty floater for two. Ryder deflected the pass into the post on their next possession as Preston Hilsabeck got the steal. Very low scoring quarter by both teams although Ian Salmon had two big buckets, the first on an amazing put back and the second a reverse layup courtesy Liam. We gave up a couple late buckets and were down 31-20 at the break.
The deficit would get the 15 points early in the third before the Dons sprung to life. Ian hit Maddox for the baseline J, Maddox hit Jordan for a triple, and Gavin hit Ian for the corner three as the Dons ripped off 10 straight! Maddox found Gavin for a top of the key three and then Cam for another. With seconds winding down, Gavin hit Maddox for a deep three over the big man and it was just 43-39 Wolves after three. We had ourselves a ballgame!
The lead got back up to 8 before Gavin came to the rescue hitting two clutch three’s in a row to cut it to two, 49-47 with 5 minutes left. Maddox was piling up the assists from the high post, finding Joe Reidenbach to make it 51-49 Wolves but that’s as close as we would get for the rest of the night. The Wolves put on an absolute free throw shooting clinic going 17 for 20 in the last three minutes of the game! With the end result quickly settling in, Gavin added a late three and a put back while Maddox added two more triples from each corner. The final was 72-62 Wolves.
Both teams shot similar percentages from the field (40%) while the Dons were much better from deep (11/30 37% vs. 2/13 15%) and YV dominated from the line (ACA 7/16 44% vs. YV 34/42 81%). We held our own on the glass as YV won that battle 36-30. YV won transition points 15-0 and points off turnovers 19-8. The Dons has 18 turnovers (11 in the first half) to their 13.
Gavin was solid with 20 points on 7/16 shooting with 6 rebounds and 3 assists in 31 minutes. Maddox has been playing his basketball of the season of late and had another good game with 13 points on 5/10 plus team highs of 8 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 blocks in 25 minutes. Ian had 9 points on 4/6, 4 rebounds and 3 deflections in 18 minutes.
Here we our folks…the last week of the regular season and it’s a tripleheader. First up, another home game vs. College Park (10-13, 4-5) on Monday night 1/29. Then a tough road matchup against Northgate (14-9, 5-4) on Wednesday 1/31. Followed by Senior Night against Mt. Diablo (2-20, 1-9) on Friday 2/2.
This is a transition year for our league as we merged temporarily with another league and now have 13 teams. A re-shuffling will occur after this season so next year will probably be more like what we’re used to (play each team twice, one home, one away) although no one is sure who those teams might be just yet. Will definitely be some musical chairs. However, the exciting news is this season the league champion will be decided by a playoff and everyone will get a chance much like March Madness.
Currently the Dons are in 10th meaning we would play our first round game against the 7 seed on Monday 2/5. Right now, that position could put us up against Miramonte, Alhambra, Las Lomas or Northgate who are all 5-4 in League Play. The top four teams (Ygnacio, Campo, Benicia, Clayton Valley) will all get a first round bye and if we win game one we would play one of those teams in the second round on Tuesday. Semi’s will be Thursday and the Finals will be Saturday. League winner gets automatic NCS Berth. We still have a chance of an at large NCS berth but will need to have a good week and probably win the Northgate game as they are also in D2 and would give us a 5-4 D2 record on the season. That’s all a little complicated but I want everyone to start getting excited about the playoffs!
Let’s finish strong! GO DONS!!!
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Photos Courtesy: @NicoleMalm, Unassociated Press
