California High School Basketball - Miramonte topped by Acalanes
January 20, 2023: Lafayette, CA 94549 The Miramonte Matadors basketball team (Orinda, CA), dropped 47-33 in Friday's league outing with the host Acalanes Dons (Lafayette, CA)
The Dons (7-7) will now prepare for their outing against Campolindo (Moraga, CA). The Cougars go into the outing with a 10-1 record. In their last outing, Campolindo defeated St. Mary's (Stockton, CA), 39-27, in a non-league outing.
The Matadors now hold a 5-5 record. They play next when they host Salesian College Preparatory for a non-league outing on Saturday, January 21.
First Quarter
The JV Dons faced off against cross town rivals Miramonte Friday evening at Chris Huber Memorial Gymnasium. The Dons came into this one looking to snap a two game losing streak, both very close games, and to claw back to .500 on the season.
Interim Coach Jack Hemmenway took over the squad late this week and he was assisted by Freshman Coach Eric Thomas on the bench. Starters were Junior Connor Hession, Sophomores Maddox Malm and JB Frolich, and Freshmen Gavin Dodge and Josh Elerts.
The Dons got off to a dominant start in the first. JB cracked the seal with a triple and Maddox dropped a dime to Gavin to go up 5-0. The D was engaged in creating turnovers and Conor had a nice block. Josh backed his man down for two then Maddox added a coast to coast nice lefty finish. Josh and Sam Bishop both added a pair of free throws and those two connected for a Josh bucket to give us a very nice 15-3 advantage going into the second.
Second Quarter
After a quick Miramonte steal and fastbreak layup, Gavin threw a deep pass to Preston Hisabeck who made an acrobatic grab and dished it back to the cutting Gavin for two. Another give and go, this time Gavin to Jake and back again for the Gavin threeball, 20-8. Maddox found Cameron Hood, making his return back from an injury, for a pretty top of the key three. We would have won the second quarter but Miramonte hit a desperation three off the glass at the buzzer to make it 23-13 going into the locker room.
Third Quarter
Lots of give and go's in this game and the third opened with another from Maddox and Gavin who set Maddox up from deep to put us up 26-13. Miramonte responded, scoring the next seven to close the gap 26-20. Alex Butler and Josh both split free throws setting up the wildest possession of the night. With a little over a minute to go, the Dons worked the ball around masterfully, looking like the Golden State Warriors for a brief moment, as Drew McKenzie got the first shot off. He missed and what followed next was a raw display of heart and desire as we got six shots up culminating in a Josh putback to extend the lead to 30-20. Drew also threw his own little block party with two at the end of the quarter as we maintained our halftime lead...30-20 Dons.
Fourth Quarter
The fourth opened with a turnover and fastbreak layup by Miramonte to close the gap and the score was 30-23 with 7 left to play. That's where Maddox blew the game wide open, going on an 8-0 scoring outburst over the next 85 seconds. It started with a beautiful midrange jumper right in his defender's face followed by a huge block on the other end. The sharp shooter then hit back to backdagger three's from virtually the same spot, much to the delight of the crowd and the Varsity brethren looking on. Preston found Josh on a nice look who missed but got his own board (patent pending) and we had a commanding 40-23 lead. Everyone made plays! Liam Gallacher came in to immediately make his presence felt with three steals in three minutes! Liam found Cole Gwaltney for a bucket. Cole found Jake Elerts and Dylan Rocca had a nice put back to get us to 47-25. Miramonte added some three's at the end to make the final a little closer than this one really felt, 47-33.
