One win away from conference title
After taking the lead in the first half 19-18 the Saddleback College Gauchos remained to hold it until the final buzzer against the Santa Ana Dons in Wednesday nights basketball game for a win 72-63.
With this win the Saddleback basketball team is 9-2 in the Orange Empire Conference clinching the conference title, the next game against Fullerton on friday night at Saddleback will decide if the Gauchos are the champions of the season.
The Dons now 9-2 in the conference will face 2-9, Cypress College Friday as well.
The Gauchos biggest lead was 21 points, led by leading scorers Dayton Boddie (15), Dalante Dunkin (14), and Andrew Bournes (14) who lead the team in 3-pointers (2-2).
Even though there was positive offensive numbers on the board the defense made stops, Gaucho guard Boddie said, “We win on defensive stops.”
The Gauchos defense rebounded 26 shots over the Dons’ nine.
“We did a pretty good job defensively and that was the difference,” said Head Coach Andy Ground.
Yet the Dons did have 9 steals with 23 points on turnovers compared to the Gauchos who only had 3 steals and 12 points on turnovers.
Boddie said, “We had some slip ups. We had a little couple turnovers. I myself had some couple turnovers. But we picked it up, it was no big deal. We just come back from it and act like it never happened and go on to the next play.”
The Gauchos will play tonight in their final regular season game home against Fullerton College at 7:30 p.m.