Finna Woke
In 2014, the Aragon Dons defeated the Valley Christian Warriors 61-55 to win their first CCS title in 20 years. Four years later, the Dons (16-11 overall, 8-4 Peninsula Athletic League) played the Warriors (14-12 overall, 2-12 West Catholic League) in similar circumstances as four years prior, with the Dons finishing near the top of the PAL and the Warriors finishing last in the WCAL. Deja Vu right? Wrong, as the Warriors pulled out victorious in a dominant 57-36.
“It’s disappointing, of course,” said head coach Hosea Patton, “but I’m happy in the same sense that our guys fought hard to get here. ”
After a power outage during the middle of the Division II girls basketball championship, the game was moved to Piedmont Hills High School, and tipped off an hour later. The change in venue did not seem to affect the Warriors, as they utilized their main strength: their size.
“You gotta give their defense credit. They have 6-foot-8, 6-7 and a bunch of athleticism in their starting five,” Patton said. “We haven’t seen any height like that all year.”
Despite the difference in height, the Dons were able to put up a fight early on, taking a 9-7 lead early in the first quarter, thanks to defensive stops and good rebounding, with senior center and 6-foot-5 Gabe Lukaszewicz nabbing six against Valley Christian junior center and 6-9 Jay Allen-Tovar in the first half alone.
“He is a really good player, big strong,” Lukaszewicz said of Allen-Tovar. “Luckily, for me, I was able to limit him to [10 points], stop many of his shots and slow him down. Most of that came from being as physical as I possibly could to a guy who is obviously bigger, more athletic than I am. I put all of my effort out there and as you could probably tell, as really exhausted from all that.”
However, the Warriors killed the game off with a massive 19-2 run to pull ahead 26-11 with 5:45 left in the second quarter. The run was capped off by a big one-handed slam by Allen-Tovar.
“Right place [and] right time,” Allen-Tovar said. “We needed something to get pumped about, besides the fact we knew the game was over.”
Following the timeout, the Dons lost Lukaszewicz, as he was elbowed in the chest and forced to come out of the game. Despite playing 11 minutes in the first half, Lukaszewicz was limited to only four minutes in the second half —a half in which Allen-Tovar scored eight of his ten points and collected 15 rebounds.
“We were on offense and I think they whistled the play dead and then [Allen-Tovar] kinda elbowed me in the gut,” Lukaszewicz said. “I think that was out of frustration, as some of his shots weren’t falling the way he probably wanted to. He apologized later, it was a little cheap shot, but it was fine.”
The Dons came out of halftime strong, closing the gap to a 34-27 lead before a timeout. After the break, Valley Christian got back on point, going on a 10-0 run to close out the quarter, including a a two-handed slam from Allen-Tovar. The run was also capitalized by an alley-oop from Valley Christian senior guard Cameron Fini to Allen-Tovar, which forced the Dons to call a timeout. Allen-Tovar would finish the game with a double-double, scoring 10 points and recording 20 rebounds, half of which came on the offensive side of the ball.
“I just kept my mind right,” he said. “The refs weren’t calling much and I didn’t have the best scoring night, so I found another way to stay useful.”
In the end, the Dons scored exactly nine points each quarter, ultimately going 14-58 from the field, equal to a field goal percentage of 24.1 percent. Junior forward Sammy Manu led the Dons with eight points and eight rebounds.
“I didn’t do well, to be honest,” he said. “That number is not good for me. I think our team did well, but not our best. I just gotta improve for next year.”
Since the CCS Division II champion is the only team that advances to the NorCal Tournament, the Dons’ season is over, meaning they will have to look forward to next season for redemption.
“I think we’ll have a good chance, but we’re losing a lot of crucial players, like [Davion Cox, Donoven Robinson, Chris Swartz and Moses Olive], basically all the seniors,” Manu said. “They got us this far, but there is a huge gap and we’ve gotta work really hard for this next year.”
For the nine seniors on the roster, this was their final game suiting up for the Red and Black.
“Basketball season is always really long and I always get exhausted by the end of it, but I am going to miss it because I am not going to play the same level, competitive varsity basketball in college,” Lukaszewicz said. “I am happy that have lasted this long with a lot of my friends on this team. I’m just proud that my last season was the best season I had on varsity.”
From the lows of starting PAL play 1-4 and the crushing CCS final loss to Valley Christian and in league play to Sequoia, to the highs of winning seven straight games, sweeping the season series with Hillsdale and making the CCS Championship Game, the Dons close their 2017-18 season and second under Patton with numerous achievements and memories to reflect on.
