Dons Struggle Offensively, Fall into Tie for OEC Lead with Saddleback
For the second time this season Saddleback College defeated the Dons, this time by a score of 72-63. The loss kept the Dons from clinching the OEC title outright.
| Final | 1 | 2 | T |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
35 | 37 | 72 |
|
|
28 | 35 | 63 |
Team Stats
Saddleback
| Game Statistics | Saddleback | Santa Ana |
|---|---|---|
| Field Goals | (25-51) | (20-58) |
| Field Goal % | 49.0% | 34.5% |
| Rebounds | 44 | 24 |
| Assists | 10 | 9 |
| Turnovers | 24 | 10 |
| Pts off Turnovers | 12 | 23 |
| 2nd Chance Pts | 23 | 16 |
| Bench Pts | 22 | 17 |
SANTA ANA - Through 11 Orange Empire Conference games only one team has been able to defeat the Dons. That team, Saddleback College, handed the Dons their second conference loss while forcing a tie for first place atop the standings following the 72-63 Gaucho victory.
With just one game left the fate of the OEC Championship is left unknown. If the teams manage the same outcome on Friday, SAC at Cypress and Saddleback at home against Fullerton, the teams would be crowned co-champions with the Gauchos taking the tiebreaker for postseason purposes.
However, if one team wins on Friday and the other loses, than the winning team would win the title outright and earn an automatic bid into the postseason. For the Dons, it would be their first title since the 1999-2000 season.
Saddleback took a seven point lead into the half and edged the Dons by just two points in the second half. However, that was mostly due to a late run by the Dons after the Gauchos extended their lead to over 20 points late in the game.
The late run wasn't enough for the Dons as they finished the game shooting just 34.5% from the field and 22.7% from three-point distance. Saddleback, on the other hand, shot 49% and 31.2% respectively.
The distance between the team's shooting success offset the Dons advantage in turnovers as SAC turned the ball over just 10 times compared to Saddleback's 24 turnovers.
The shooting woes for the Dons can be seen in the boxscore as just two SAC scorers cracked double digits with Cammie Lewis scoring 16 and Cameron Hill scoring 11.
