SANTA ANA - The Dons lost their first home Orange Empire Conference game of the season 83-71 to Orange Coast College to open OEC play 0-2. The visiting Pirates (7-9, 1-1) picked up their first OEC victory by outscoring the Dons 40-29 in the second half.
After the Pirates opened the game with a 5-0 run, the Dons (4-12, 0-12) answered with an 8-0 run, punctuated by a De'Jon Frazier dunk, to take an early 8-5 lead. The Dons would continue to hold the lead as they worked up to their biggest lead of the game at 26-12 following a pair of Roger Hamel free throws just nine minutes into the game.
Less than four minutes later, Noah Wellington made a layup for the Dons to make the score 33-21 with 7:36 remaining. It was from that point that Orange Coast started slowly chipping away at the lead before ultimately tying the game, and reclaiming the lead, at 40-39 on two Jamaal Lee free throws with 33 seconds left in the half.
The Dons would get a layup, plus a free throw on a foul, by Chris Thompson to grab a 42-40 lead with 12 seconds left in the half before Josh Mendoza sent the Pirates into the break with a 43-42 lead when he hit a three-pointer just before the buzzer.
The Pirates came out in the second half with a 7-0 run in the first three minutes of the second half to claim a 50-42 lead before the Dons went on a 10-4 run to cut the Coast lead to just two, ended by a Keith Davis three-pointer with 12:41 remaining in the game.
However, that would be the closest the Dons would get for the remainder of the game as the Pirates built their lead up to as many as 14 on Lee's three-pointer that made the score 73-59 with 6:15 left in the game. The Dons would get the lead under double digits on Pedro Chavarin's layup with 1:19 left, but Coast closed out the game with three free throws to win 83-71.
Frazier led the Dons in the loss with 16 points while Hamel added 14 points. Davis finished with 12 points and Wellington scored 10 as the Dons had four of their five starters in double digits. Coast was led by Mendoza who scored a game-high 25 points, just ahead of Lee's 23 points.
