The De Anza College women’s basketball team was defeated 42-41 by the Ohlone College Renegades, Jan. 12, putting the Dons 2-1 for the conference season thus far.
Forward Desiree Collins made the first shot of the game after receiving an inside pass from forward Nadia Williams. Renegade forward Alexous Robinson made two free throws, tying the game at 2-2.
The score stayed close throughout the game and few shots were successful, resulting in a score of 20-23 at the end of the first-half with Ohlone in the lead.
“I think we panicked early in the first half, in the second half we did better. Our passes are still sporadic.” Ahmad Senegal, the Dons’ assistant coach said. “Free throw-wise we didn’t even get a chance to shoot that many because we didn’t attack very well. [We showed] some improvement, but not where we needed to be.”
In the last eight minutes of the game, the Renegades increased their lead by six points.
The Dons fought back, with guard Anecia Jones making two free throws, but the Dons still lost 42-41.
“To me I feel that losing by so little is worse because, deep down, I know we could have won and we just let it slip away,” Collins said.
The Dons played a solid defense, trapping the ball on the sidelines and in the corner, successfully giving them possession of the ball with a minute left in the game.
The intensity increased when Collins picked up a steal with 40 seconds left in the game. The Dons set up their offense and attempted to gain the lead.
With 20 seconds left, Jones received a pass. She took the open shot, a three-pointer that could very well have won the game for De Anza. The shot bounced off the rim, resulting in cries from the Dons’ bench and fans in the bleachers.
“When I took the shot, I knew it was going in. I wanted to take the shot and it felt good when it left my hands,” Jones said. “But when it didn’t fall, there was nothing I could do about it but play defense and try to get the ball back.”
According to Jones, all great players miss game-winning shots. She intends not to, the next game where she will get the opportunity to score a game-winning shot again.
De Anza shot 62 percent from the free throw line, successfully scoring five out of eight free throws during the game. This was a small number compared to the 15 free throw attempts by the Renegades.
Losing by just one point solidified the fact that execution is still something that the Dons need to work on, Senegal said.
“We need to execute our plays. The last play of the game, a girl was supposed to come set a screen and she doesn’t set it. That’s the difference at the end of the game,” Senegal said.
Despite their poor execution on offense, the Dons succeeded defensively in limiting consistent Ohlone high scorer, Robinson, to just nine points.
“Defensively, it was a team effort. We didn’t really get any steals like we wanted to, but overall we played [a] good, sound defense,” Senegal said.
Similarly, Ohlone limited the points scored by De Anza players Collins and Jones, who scored 18 points and 17 respectively in the Dons’ last game against San Jose City College.
“We just have to move forward, get strong and stay positive. There’s always positive in a loss,” Senegal said. “We lost by one point – that’s just a simple free throw. We missed more than one free throw. We’ll be fine going ahead, we just have to stay positive.”
