Tomorrow, February 28th, the boys’ basketball team continues their playoff march in the semifinal game at home against their rivals, St. Augustine. The winner will advance to the CIF finals against the winner of the Mission Bay and Mount Miguel matchup being played at Mount Miguel High School.
The game will be the third time this season that the two teams have faced each other, with the Dons coming out on top of both previous games. In the teams’ first matchup back on January 6th, the Dons were down 30-21 going into halftime before roaring back to a 60-51 victory. The Dons scored 18 points in the third quarter and 21 in the fourth and final quarter to help seal the victory. Juniors Xavier Williams and Niksha Federico had stellar performances, both scoring in the double digits.
In the teams’ last meeting on January 27th, unlike the previous matchup, the Dons did not go into halftime trailing the Saints. In fact the Dons took a big lead into the intermission with a score of 35-24; and they never looked back, scoring another 10 points in the third quarter and 24 in the final quarter to beat the Saintsmen 69-49. Junior captain Nick Prunty was the star in the last game, putting up 18 points. Willams and Federico again had good games, both scoring at least 10 points.
The Dons will go into this game with an overall record of 26-3 and a league record of 10-2. Their 26 wins are tied for 2nd most in their division in California. Their nearly 2000 overall points scored is the best in San Diego (Saints is second with just under 1900 points scored). The Dons are averaging over 68 points a game, the best in their league.
A key to nearly all of the Dons’ victories this season has been the often-unheralded play of junior Brandon Michel, who, aside from averaging over 8 points a game, has helped the team in another way. Brandon leas the team in steals; in fact, Brandon has more steals than anyone in San Diego with an amazing 153 in total. Per game, Brandon averages an impressive 5.3 steals.
Brandon’s quick hands give his team an interesting edge over their opponent. With the help of Brandon’s 5.3 steals per game, the team as a whole averages a league best 14.4 steals per game. These extra scoring opportunities give the Dons an advantage over almost any other team in the county. If the Dons want to advance to the finals, they will need to keep this going.
So far in the playoffs the Dons have scored 88 points against Brawley and 90 against Olympian. The boys’ look to keep their hot streak going against Saints and advance to the CIF championship game on March 3rd.