The Dragon cagers found out that it’s hard – if not impossible – to win when you go almost 11 minutes without scoring.
Saturday night, the Dragons did just that when they hosted San Rafael. Sonoma had a dry spell that went from the 4:15 mark of the first quarter to the 1:30 mark of the second quarter. And in that time went from an 8-7 lead to a 24-8 deficit.
The Dragons lost 57-42.
“We dug ourselves a hole,” said Dragon Coach Mike Boles. “We came out in the first quarter with good energy. But that second quarter killed us.”
The Dragons and the Bulldogs traded baskets and the lead through the first three-plus minutes and Sonoma took an 8-7 lead when Tyler Garrett hit a basket at the 4:15 mark.
But then the Dragons went cold and couldn’t buy a basket the rest of the first quarter as San Rafael finished the quarter on a 7-0 run.
The Bulldog run continued into the second quarter when they ran off another 10 points building up 24-8 lead before Dylan Samaniego ended the Dragon drought when he hit a basket at the 1:30 mark of the quarter.
Sonoma came out in the third quarter and when Jack Boydell hit a pair of free throws at the 3:16 mark, the Dragons had pared San Rafael’s 17-point lead down to 10.
But the Dragons were running into foul trouble. Both Justin Cox and Boydell picked up their fourth fouls in the third quarter as the Dragons got aggressive. Max Gustafson fouled out late in the fourth quarter, but the game was all but over at that point. The refs called 25 fouls on the Dragons compared to only 11 on the Bulldogs.
The Dragons got the margin down to eight points midway through the fourth quarter. But the Bulldogs padded their lead from the free throw line as they hit 22 out of 33 charity tosses.
“We played with urgency and desperation in the second half,” Boles said. “That magnified our mistakes.”
“But, we played our best third quarter of the season,” he continued. “Our offense was created by our defense.”
Samaniego led the Dragons with 13 points, Riley Phelan had 10, Boydell had nine, Gustafson had six and Garrett had four.
Thursday, Sonoma lost to DeAnza, 72-25.
The losses drop the Dragons to a 2-4 record.
Sonoma hosts Terra Linda tonight, Tuesday, and travel to Alhambra for a Thursday game. The Dragons are back in Pfeiffer Gym again Saturday when they host Ygnacio Valley.
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