By Tommy Fellner, Online Sports Editor
The Acalanes Women’s Basketball team (12-1, 1-0 DFAL) defeated crosstown rival and basketball powerhouse Campolindo this Tuesday night, 58-48.
The Lady Dons could not have scripted a better start to the 2014-2015 season, on a six game win streak and already the victors of the West Coast Jamboree tournament. With the same core of players from last year’s team returning the Lady Dons are no strangers to adversity.
Last year’s squad upset the top ranked Lady Cougars and defended their home court in their final DFAL matchup with the Lady Cougars. It was a nail biter of a game in which the heavy underdog Lady Dons came back and defeated the Goliath cougars.
This year’s team built on that and is not leaving anything to chance. Acalanes had already defeated Campolindo when they were matched up in the West Coast Jamboree, but needed to prove that the last game was not just a fluke and this year’s team is for real.
However, Acalanes would have to travel to the hostile environment of Campolindo High School, and the Lady Cougars wanted nothing more than to trash Acalanes in front of their home crowd.
The game started out slow and the Lady Dons struggled with putting their shots away while Campolindo converted on their few good chances thanks to Acalanes’ tough defense.
In the second quarter the tide began to turn in favor of the visitor. Acalanes started hitting shots led by sophomore Brooke Panfili. Behind a well rounded scoring effort Acalanes was able to catch up to the frustrated Cougars and even claim a two point lead heading into halftime.
Coming out of the break, the Lady Cougars were more inspired than ever to put their foot on the gas and put away this game. But the Lady Dons beat them to it.
Acalanes came out of the break firing. And not just Panfili, the whole team. Bucket after bucket dropped for the Lady Dons and they found themselves up 16 points.
Campolindo tried desperately to get back into the game but it was a lost cause. The Lady Dons had wrapped this one up and had no intention of letting it go. The final score read Acalanes 58 Campolindo 48.
Panfili led a well rounded scoring attack from the Lady Dons with 11 points.
It was a great win for the Lady Dons as they now solidify their position as a new power in the DFAL league. Their next challenge will be to take down reigning state champs Miramonte Matadors led by All-American shooting guard Sabrina Ionescu.The Lady Matadors dismantled Las Lomas by over 50 points, 40 of those being Ionescu’s.
Nonetheless, the Lady Dons reaffirmed their dominance over Campolindo. It was a big win and a very proud moment for the Lady Dons’ squad.
“Words cant describe how proud I am,” said junior captain Julia Lyons. “We knew what we had to do win again, and we knew how hard we had to play and we just went out and executed it all. Its never going to get old beating them.”