Swim leads the way as Napa pounds Pioneer
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
The Napa High boys basketball team continued their solid beginning of the season on Friday when they whooped Pioneer-Woodland, 65-45.
From the opening tip the Grizzlies (7-4) dominated. In the first quarter they went on an 8-0 run, which saw Zach Swim score all of the points. Swim ended the first half with 20 first half points and had two emphatic dunks.
“Our team really got me going,” Swim said of the impressive first half. “(They were) giving me the ball at the right times, especially when we were running our 1-3-1 (defense) – I got a couple key steals – and I’m off the top on that, so it was nice for them to get the ball to me for those dunks and the others were just taken hard to the hole, layups, taking it through the gaps in their holes 1-3-1 and 2-3 (defenses).”
Swim ended the night with a solid 24 points and 10 rebounds, which led Napa on the evening.
“He got a couple steals in rotation and had a couple nice dunks in transition and he really sparked us,” Napa coach Zack Cook said of Swim’s awesome game.
Sophomore guard Brayden Greenlee also added 12 points and four rebounds off the bench to end the night as the Grizzlies second highest scorer.
Another thing Napa did beautifully on the night was move the ball around and make the extra pass.
“We’re really a team this year,” Swim explained of the great sharing of the ball. “We really all like each other, we’re all really connected, we’re all friends off the court, so I think we all trust each other whether that’d be on defense or offense to make the right move and not turning the ball over and we all trust each other with the ball, so that’s good.”
Another thing that generally is important in basketball is making free throws, and the Grizzlies nailed 77% of their free throws on the night by going 10-for-13 for the game. At the half they were a solid 7-for-9 from the stripe.
“We really have been working on free throws,” Swim emphasized. “There’s been a couple games earlier in the season where we’ve shot horribly from the free throw line, so we just stay after practice and work on free throws with (coach Greg) Johnson – he’s really helping us out so it’s going good.”
Napa will complete the back end of a back-to-back on Saturday when they head to Vallejo to take on Bethel at 7:30 p.m. There will be six games overall at Bethel High School on Saturday as all three levels of boys and girls will take on Bethel. The varsity girls game will tip-off at 6 p.m.
“A way different pace,” Cook said of the game in Vallejo on Saturday. Going over to their place it’ll be a tough game – they’re really, really athletic and can get after it, so we’re looking forward to it. It’ll be a nice test for our guys.”
Brent Farris honored pregame
Brent Farris, one of the newest members of the Napa High School athletic Hall of Fame, was honored before the tip of the varsity game.
Denny Lewis, his varsity basketball coach in his time at Napa High, presented him with his Hall of Fame plaque in the ceremony.
Farris graduated from Napa in 1991 and was a two-sport athlete for the Indians as he also played football.
Farris’s nephew, Brayden Greenlee, is also on the varsity.
