Men’s basketball crushes cabrillo 67-61

DJ Rodriguez scores 29 points, leads Dons to win over Seahawks

Men’s basketball crushes cabrillo 67-61

Rajvir Kaur, Staff Writer

The De Anza College Dons beat the visiting Cabrillo College Seahawks 67-61 Wednesday night, Jan. 28.
The well-known Seahawks played a neck-and-neck game, but the Dons pulled through with
the victory.
“We knew it was going to be a grind,” said Jason Damjanovic, head coach of De Anza’s men’s basketball team. “It’s always a battle with them. They’re such a quality team and opponent and any victory against them is respected on
our end.”
The Dons walked onto the court dressed in gold jerseys, a change from their usual white uniforms.
Cabrillo tipped off and both teams were unable to score in the first minutes of the game. With miss after miss, the scoring didn’t start until Seahawks’ sophomore Latrell Wilson put up two points on the board almost three minutes into
the game.
Dons’ sophomore DJ Rodriguez retaliated with a 3-pointer, putting the Dons up by one. Both teams stayed in close range of each other throughout the first half, gaining short leads.
Freshman Don Daniel Paulson added two free-throws on the board, after over two minutes of no scoring, and gave the Dons a 16-13 lead with 5:48 left in the first half.
Wilson followed suit, but Dons’ sophomore guard Kyle Connor rebounded with a 3-pointer of his own, hitting nothing but net.
At the two-minute mark, the Dons were up 25-18, but the Seahawks scored the last three points in the first half and the game went into halftime with a score
of 25-21.
Coming back in the second half, the Seahawks were unable to get the upper hand against the Dons.
They managed to narrow a 6-point lead to a 2-point lead five minutes into the second half. But thanks to a 3-pointer by Rodriguez, and another by sophomore captain Nate Vieira, the Dons pushed
ahead 39-31.
With 10 minutes left to go, the Dons were ahead 45-36 and with five and a half minutes left, the score was 56-42.
At the two minute warning, the Dons were up 59-49.
The Seahawks kept up their game, shortening the double digit lead to single digits, but their attempts were unsuccessful.
As the final seconds ticked away and the buzzer sounded, the Dons walked away with a 67-61 win.
Rodriguez finished with 29 points to lead all scorers. Paulson scored 13 points in the game and Viera and freshman forward Josh Bongers each contributed
eight points.
The win gave the Dons a record of 4-2 in conference and
9-11 overall.
“We prepared well [and] we executed tonight,” Damjanovic said. “We’ve been playing good basketball so hopefully
that continues.”