SANTA ANA – The Dons saw their season come to a close with an 86-80 loss to visiting Riverside City College in an Orange Empire Conference game. This was the third meeting of the season between the two teams, but the first loss for the Dons as they won the previous two games.

The Dons (13-14, 5-7) opened the game shooting well with Du'Juan Williams and Chris Kapano hitting back-to-back threes to put the Dons up 6-0 in the opening minutes. The Dons continued to hold the lead through the first seven minutes until the Tigers (10-17, 5-7) used a 6-0 run of their own to take the lead at 9-8.

Justin Bryan would convert one free throw about a minute later to tie the game at 9-9 before Riverside took the lead for good at 11-9 on a Deric Daniels jump shot at 11:36. The Tigers would go on to take a 39-28 lead into the half, behind 50% shooting.

The Dons would battle back halfway through the second half, getting as close as three points on a pair of Kapano free throws. But Riverside would extend their lead back to 11 points with 9:10 remaining in the game.

Kyle Kintzle helped the Dons back within six with a three-pointer with 57 seconds left in the game, but that would be the closest the Dons would get before going on to the six-point defeat.

Kintzle led all scorers with 22 points followed by Williams with 14 points and Bryan with 13 points. Riverside got a pair of 20-point performances with Taj Adams scoring 21 points and Jelani Mitchell scoring 20 points.