Lorenzo Donadio came into Saturday’s game shooting 29% from three, but you would’ve never known it.
Donadio went 5-7 from the three-point line, and 8-11 overall from the floor for 22 points in American’s 68-65 win over Mount St. Mary’s.
“Zo is one of those guys because he knows how to play,” said American Eagles head coach Duane Simpkins. He gets to the right spots at the right time.”
Keys:
Red-Hot Donadio: Donadio might not have been the only reason the Eagles won, but he was the main reason. As Simpkins said, Donadio knows how to get to the right spots and did just that. Most of the threes came from Donadio’s ability to find the open spot in the defense without completely diverting from the offensive actions. Because American wasn’t running rigid sets for Donadio, it made Donadio much harder to guard.
Jones Hustle: Freshman Greg Jones’ corner three-pointer was a huge play, but he was so much more than that shot. Jones continuously made hustle plays that kept possessions alive. Jones led the team with six rebounds and had eight points in 15 minutes. Jones’ biggest rebound came with 1:47 left in the game with American clinging to a two-point lead. Jones worked to get Geoff Stephens’ miss and then had the awareness to pass the ball to Lincoln Ball for a layup that pushed the lead back up to four.
“A Loss is a Lesson”: American was in the same situation against Georgetown. Up three points on the opponent’s final possession. Simpkins adjusted starting with guarding the ball and denying the ball. It worked. The Mountaineers had their first option taken away. The second option never formalized partly because the inbounder didn’t slide to the open spot after throwing the ball in. That meant Mount St. Mary’s never got a shot off at the end of the game.
