During the second day of the Monta Vista Holiday Tournament, the Aragon Dons (8-3) battled closely with the Harker Eagles (5-4) and wound up with a 65-56 victory, securing a spot in the championship round of the tournament.
The Dons' senior center David Manoa along with the Eagles' senior guard Nikhil Panu each scored a game-high 18 points.
In a high-intensity first half, Aragon led 12-9 after one quarter, but Harker rebounded to lead 30-19.
Despite their 11-point disadvantage, the Dons remained composed as they entered the third quarter, finally tying the game 41-41 with just over a minute left in the period. Aragon led by two going into the fourth quarter.
In the fourth quarter, Harker sophomore guard Nicholas Nguyen sank a 3-pointer to put the Eagles one point behind (53-52), but Aragon hit a three of its own to zip away again en route to the victory.
"At the half we were down by 11 so our whole theme was to play one possession at a time and not to hurry because during the first half, we got the shots that we wanted, it's just that our shooters were missing them," Aragon coach Sam Manu said. "And so the whole idea was that our shooters weren't going to miss for the whole game, so we were just being patient. It's tempting to panic and be like, 'Let's press and press,' but we just said, 'One possession at a time,' and it really worked for us."
Aragon faces Gunderson in the championship game Saturday night (8 pm).
"It was a good game for us, I needed a game like this for our team [for them to] not panic and trust that their offense would give it to them and that their shooting would be there for them," Manu said. "This is a game we needed to play. Harker's a good team. They were good last year and they've got a quality program with [their] coaching and so we knew it was going to be tough and they pressed us and we've been trying to work on a press."
Harker faces Tennyson for third place Saturday (6:30 pm).
