Uyehara, Singh lead Dons to victory

SAN JOSE—In a hotly contested basketball game between the De Anza College Dons and the San Jose City College Jaguars, the Dons managed to put enough pressure in the second half to hold a marginal lead against the Jaguars on Jan. 12, at San Jose City College.

The game ended in a decisive 82-72 win. Guard Blake Uyehara had 19 points that night, scoring five of his seven 3-point attempts and grabbing four rebounds.  Center Ajay Singh also scored 19 points, on 9 of 11 shooting, managing to get nine rebounds as well. Despite foul trouble at the beginning of each period that led to a total of 17 personal fouls, the Dons were able to hold off the Jaguars’ persistent offense.

“We were just grabbing instead of playing discipline defense, and that allowed them to get easy free throws,” head coach Jason Damjanovic said. “We need to work on keeping our hands steady.”

Since starting the season on Nov. 22, the men’s basketball team has gotten off to a rocky start, winning half of their first 10 games. However, shortly after their win in Santa Rosa (79-73), the Dons hit an unfortunate stroke of bad luck, losing five consecutive times over the next three weeks.

De Anza is currently competing in the Coast Conference division, setting their record at 2-2 following the latest win against the San Jose City College Jaguars.

The win at San Jose comes as a welcome boost of morale following the Dons’ close attempt at a win (66-63) at Gavilan College on Jan. 10.

With eight more games to go in the conference, the Dons are a third of the way through.

“The guys did well, especially coming off the loss as Gavilan. I’m satisfied with their effort tonight,” Damjanovic said.

The next time the Dons and the Jaguars meet again during the conference is on Feb. 7, at De Anza.