Preview: De Anza Dons vs. Salesian College Preparatory Pride
De Anza is 0-10 against Salesian College Preparatory since January of 2019 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Thursday. The De Anza Dons just played last night, but they'll still head out to face the Salesian College Preparatory Pride at 7:30 p.m. on February 8th. Keep an eye on the score for this one: the two teams posted some lofty point totals in their previous games.
It can be hard to translate regular season success to the playoffs, but De Anza had no problem doing just that on Wednesday. They came out on top against the Redhawks by a score of 65-57. The win was some much needed relief for De Anza as it spelled an end to their ten-game losing streak.
De Anza found their leader in underclassman Ahmari Otis, who scored 31 points along with six rebounds. Otis hasn't dropped below 16 points for nine straight games. Another player making a difference was Christopher Smith, who scored 17 points along with five rebounds.
Meanwhile, Salesian College Preparatory had already won 12 in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 33.8 points), and they went ahead and made it 13 on Friday. They enjoyed a cozy 80-61 victory over De Anza. Salesian College Preparatory pushed the score to 70-34 by the end of the third, a deficit De Anza cut but never quite recovered from.
De Anza's win ended a six-game drought on the road and puts them at 7-17. As for Salesian College Preparatory, they pushed their record up to 25-1 with that victory, which was their eighth straight at home.
De Anza lost to Salesian College Preparatory on the road by a decisive 80-61 margin in their previous meeting on Friday. Can De Anza avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
