California High School Basketball - Acalanes edged by Northgate
January 18, 2023: Lafayette, CA 94549
The Acalanes Dons basketball team (Lafayette, CA), was nudged 51-47 in Wednesday's league battle with the visiting Northgate Broncos (Walnut Creek, CA)
The Broncos now possess a 2-3 record. They put it on the line next when they host Clayton Valley Charter for a battle on Friday, January 20. Northgate will confront a Ugly Eagles team coming off a 56-48 league win over Las Lomas (Walnut Creek, CA). The Ugly Eagles record now stands at 13-5.
The Dons (6-7) will now prepare for their battle against Miramonte (Orinda, CA). The Matadors come into the battle with a 5-4 record. In their last battle, Miramonte edged College Park (Pleasant Hill, CA), 44-29, in a league battle.
First Quarter
The Dons faced off against the Broncos in a tough, league matchup Wednesday night in Lafayette.
Starting for the Dons were Freshmen Gavin Dodge and Josh Elerts?plus Sophomores Maddox Malm, JB Frolich, and Drew McKenzie. Gavin started us off with a midrange jumper after grabbing his own rebound off a missed three. Josh had a nice take to the hoop and Maddox cleaned up a loose ball for a layup to put us up 6-2.? Josh added a bucket off our favorite inbounds play and Gavin found Conor Hession for a three to make it 12-4. Conor found Nico for a three to beat the buzzer at the end of the quarter to make it 16-7.
Second Quarter
The Dons started to pour it on and extended their advantage to 18 points at one time, 27-9. That run included Gavin finding Josh down low, a JB score, Maddox to Josh again, a Josh to Alex three-ball and another Maddox cleanup layup. JB converted two free throws after being fouled on a reverse layup and we held a 29-18 lead at the break.
Third Quarter
It looked like a different Dons team after half as Northgate quickly went on a 15-4 run that brought them within two, 33-31. Our only buckets during that stretch were a Gavin steal and coast-to-coast finish plus Josh hitting two free throws after being fouled and a nice saving pass from JB. Gavin steadied the ship for a moment with a baseline J and Sam Bishop hit a gorgeous three to make the score 38-33 at the end of the period.
Fourth Quarter
The Broncos went on another charge to start the fourth, scoring the first 11 points to go up 44-38 before Josh scored on consecutive buckets including a nifty spin move on the assist from Conor to get us back within two. Alex Butler and Josh both split free throws and Gavin buried a huge three to get us to within 47-50 as the sand in the hourglass was quickly running out. We fouled Northgate on purpose and they split free throws to go up 4. Coming out of a timeout with about 10 seconds left, the Dons drew up a beautiful play to free Gavin for a three that failed to connect. The ball went out of bounds to the Dons with 2 second left and we inbounded again to Gavin who tried to draw a foul on a three but to no avail. The final was 47-51.
