The De Anza College men’s basketball team beat the West Valley College Vikings 77-50 Jan. 28.

Before the game, the Dons’ head coach Jason Damjanovic spoke about how the last victory over the Vikings at the season opener affected the team’s preparation before the game.

“I think you prepare for overconfidence because we already beat them by a pretty wide margin, so you just got to keep them focused,” he said.

The game started with the Vikings winning the tip-off and scoring the first point of the game.

The Dons answered right back with an alley-oop scored by forward Eric Heslin with the assist by guard Drew Thompson.

Unlike the last matchup, which De Anza took control at the very beginning of the game, the game appeared to be close from the get-go.

The Dons slowly gained the upper hand; a fast break layup by guard Joshua Williams gave the Dons a 25-16 lead with about nine minutes left in the first half.

The Vikings refused to let the gap grow; they slowly inched in to 27-24 after a turnover by guard Jeremy Allen.

Travelling became the Dons’ problem. They gave up several possessions because of the moving violation.

West Valley passing was strong; they created space inside the paint for West Valley by luring the Dons’ forwards to the edge of the perimeter, affording the Vikings a better chance to grab rebounds and shoot inside the key.

But the Dons stood strong, ending the first half with 46-31.

Like the last meeting, the Dons outscored its opponent by scoring more 3-pointers; they scored seven three-points shots in the first half.

De Anza gave up two possessions near the start of the second half when they tried to squeeze the ball on the side; the Vikings used these opportunities to close the gap to single digits with 50-41.

However, the Vikings’ offense started to misfire; they scored only nine points after the sixteenth minute.

The Dons, however, played a better inside game than their first half, scoring 22 points inside the Viking perimeter. The Dons were in total control.

“We did better in the second half,” said Damjanovic. “We got stops in the second half. We got consecutive stops, you know which is kind of our goal now, and instead of letting them score every possession. We are still alive. Absolutely, every game for us is a playoff game.”

The Dons are sitting in fifth place in the Coast Conference South Division with a 3-4 record. Their next game against Cabrillo College will hopefully see victory as the standard.