The Dons didn't trail once in Saturday's contest
After a first round bye, the No. 2-seeded Dons (22-5 overall,11-1 Peninsula Athletic League) took care of No. 10 Oak Grove (15-10, 7-3 Blossom Valley League) 58-45 in a Central Coast Section Playoffs quarterfinal matchup Feb. 24.
The red and black opened the game on an 11-0 run, blanking the Eagles for the first five and a half minutes until Oak Grove junior Tiffany Nguyen sank a 3-pointer. From then on out, the Dons held the lead until the final whistle, which head coach Sam Manu attributes to lockdown defense.
“We really wanted to put pressure on the players and really try to contest any screens. They did a lot of pick and rolls — and that’s how they start their offense — and so we really wanted to just nip it in the butt early and see what else they had. So I was really happy with the effort of really pressured defense.”
Throughout the first half, the Dons’ defense forced Oak Grove into more 3-point attempts — on which they shot 24 percent throughout the game — than 2-point shots. And given that the Dons shot 45 percent from the field, Oak Grove had little room for error
Sophomore Nala Fainga led the Dons with 13 points, shooting 6-7 from the field.
“I had a lot more confidence in my shots,” she said, “and my team helped me out a lot going back on defense and making sure we were all spaced out.”
Fainga was tasked with guarding Oak Grove senior Daylene Misa’alegue — the Eagles’ best player, according to Manu — but more than held her own Saturday, as Misa’alegue shot 5-20 from the field, including 0-6 from beyond the arc.
“We played her real well because we had seen her play,” Manu said of Misa’alegue, who the Dons took note of when they scouted the Feb. 22 matchup between Oak Grove and Leigh, as they would take on the winner. “That was the advantage of seeing them play, and it was really cool because our whole team was there, so I didn’t really have to explain much.”
The Dons entered the fourth quarter with a 51-23 lead, and let up during the final eight minutes, getting outscored 22-7.
“The fourth quarter kinda got away from us,” Manu said. “We lost assignments. [There was] a lot of rim-watching on rebounds, which is a taboo on our team, and so we’re losing players and not boxing people out and giving people second chances — they had a lot of second chances.”
The Dons will play No. 3 Wilcox (18-8 overall, 8-4 Santa Clara Athletic Valley League) on Feb. 27 with a trip to CCS Finals on the line.
