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The DONS (20-5, 10-1) travelled to Pleasant Hill Monday night to face the College Park Falcons (16-9, 7-4) who were fighting for their DAL Tournament Playoff lives needing to win to make the 6 team field. Northgate was monitoring the situation closely as they would benefit from a DONS win.
Ryder found Gavin 10 seconds into the contest for a three and it was on! 15 seconds later, Ian hit Maddox for a deep top of the key three. A minute later, Brady hit Gavin in the corner for another as CP needed a timeout, 9-2 DONS. 30 seconds later, Ian hits Gavin for his third three in the first 2 minutes! The press was frustrating the Falcons as Gavin deflected a pass to Ryder for the steal who went right back to Gavin to Brady to a cutting Ian for two as the basketball pinballed around with beautiful precision. 16-5 DONS. Ian was all over the floor accumulating steals and wreaking havoc, scoring on a putback inside and then finding Joe for another DONS three. Then Joe deflected a Falcon’s pass into the arms of Cameron who threw it up ahead to Ian who looked like Michael Vick for a second as he zagged when his defender zigged and got the easy lay-in. 24-9 DONS after one.
Would the DONS cool off after going 5/11 on three’s in the first? Not really as it continued to rain down in Pleasant Hill. Chase found Joe for another three 30 seconds in, then same duo connected again 30 second later. Next possession, Chase hits Gavin in the corner for another to go up 20. Insane shooting by the DONS now 8/14 (57%) on three’s at this point! The Falcons cut it to 15 then Brady utilized a Ryder screen to get to the cup for the and-1. We started to cool off a bit from deep but Ry found Gavin for one more to go back up 21. Then Gavin followed his own shot for a putback and scored on a nice baseline fadeaway. DONS up 43-18 at the break. Gavin had 19 at the half with 5 three’s and Joe 10 points with 3 three’s.
Falcons would start clawing back in the third scoring on their first two possessions while Gavin hit Maddox for a little baseline floater for ACA. Ryder then found brother Maddox underneath for an easy two. Brady hit Gavin for a nice step back free throw jumper…CASH as the lead ballooned up to 26. Then a technical on the bench gave CP’s leading scorer, freshman Miles Cooper, an opportunity to see some free throws go in and he started to find a rhythm, burying a deep three over Ryder seconds later. Then Brady found Ryder on a nice alley-oop for an easy two. A Dons turnover led to a Falcon three but we immediately answered when Madox hit Joe for his fifth triple of the night. College Park scored on a nice backdoor cut and another Cooper three as both teams were raining now! Gavin hit Joe for his sixth three as the bench oohed and ahhed in disbelief! Cooper scored inside on a nice drive then Maddox found the hot hand Big Game Joe who buried his third straight three in a two minute span. Unreal. Cooper continued to do damage assisting a three and converting two more free throws off another DONS technical for shoving. Falcons would cut the lead to 15, 61-46 DONS heading into the fourth. Cooper who came in averaging 17 points per game, had 12 points in the quarter after scoring 1 in the entire first half.
Cooper scored again to open the fourth and then Barnett got two fastbreaks, a dunk and a layup, as the DONS lead was in single digits at 7 with 4 minutes left. Meanwhile the DONS hadn’t even scored yet. YIKES. Then Ryder hit Ian inside for a huge two. Couple minutes later, Gavin found Cam in the corner for a three that put us up 11. After a defensives top, the DONS pushed it up and Ryder found Gavin in the corner for another three that was the dagger as the lead was 4 with just over minute left. Cam and Maddox tacked on some free throws and the Falcons got a few more buckets but it didn’t matter. 75-65 final, DONS WIN!
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The DONS shot 44% (26/59) from the field, 47% (14/30) from three and 69% (9/13) from the line while the Falcons were also 44% (24/55) from the field, 26% (6/23) from three and 73% (11/15) from the line. Obviously the made three’s were the big difference as DONS were +24 points from deep. Rebounds were 37-28 DONS and turnovers were petty even as we had 12 vs. College Park’s 13.
Gavin led the way with 26 points on 9/16 shooting, 6/10 from deep, 4 rebounds and 4 assists playing wire-to-wire. Joe had 19 points on 6/9 from deep. Ian had 9 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 steals. Maddox had 9 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists. Ryder had team highs of 11 rebounds, 5 assists and +17. Brady had 5 points, 4 assists and was also +17. Cameron added 5 points and 3 rebounds.
With the W, the DONS move to 21-5, 11-1 and win their sixth straight avenging 8 of their 9 league losses from last season with the exception of Campolindo. The Northgate Broncos made it into the league tournament as the 6th seed while the Falcons will have to wait until this Sunday to learn where they get placed for NCS.
In last night’s DAL action, Northgate was able to upset the 3 seed Campolindo 56-55 on a D’Angelo Smith three point play late. Rendle had a good look at a game winner but missed long. 5 seed Clayton Valley, back at full strength with Elijah Perryman and Vince Ellis back from injuries, was able to outlast 4 seed Ygnacio Valley on the road 53-47. This set’s up Friday’s Semifinal games with 2 seed Las Lomas hosting Northgate at 6PM and your Acalanes DONS hosting Clayton Valley at 7PM. The DAL Finals will also be hosted at Acalanes this year so that game will be at 230PM on Saturday with the girls Finals following at 5PM.
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Game Photos Courtesy: Nicole Malm
