Napa remains unbeaten in league play with win over Petaluma
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
Although it wasn’t pretty the Napa High boys basketball team stayed undefeated in Vine Valley Athletic League play on Monday night.
In their 62-53 win over Petaluma the Grizzlies (13-5 overall, 5-0 VVAL) held leads as big as 17 and 14 points.
“I think first half we had it (the lead) at 14 (points),” Napa coach Zack Cook said. “And then out of the gate we got it up to 17.”
“We let them get out in transition too much,” Petaluma coach Scott Behrs said. “Bowers and Blume got out on the break and made things happen. We couldn’t take care of the basketball and we had trouble switching defenses. We tried to give Napa a different look, but we couldn’t get there in time. They’re a good team and they play hard. They want to win every single game by the way they play.”
However, in the second half Napa let up a bit according to Cook. The Trojans (5-13, 2-3 VVAL) cut Napa’s lead down to four points at one point in the second half.
“I don’t know what happened. I don’t know if our guys just assumed that they were going to coast to the win, but we got a little lazy, we gave up some layups over the top in our press and we’re lucky that we were able to fend them off and get out of here with a win,” Cook said of Petaluma’s second half comeback. “Not our best performance.”
It also didn’t help Napa that Petaluma was finding the bottom of the net on every shot they took for a short amount of time in the third quarter.
“They got hot from outside and started stroking it,” Cook added. “We weren’t contesting like we talked about before the game. That was part of our game plan was to get out and contest their three-point shooters, and we were giving them too much space and that helped them come back.”
The Grizzlies were led by their normal scorers of Zach Swim and Stephen Blume.
Swim had 17 points to go along with seven rebounds, while Blume added 16 points and two rebounds.
A player who flew under-the-radar on the night for Napa was Vince O’Kelley who had 11 points and four rebounds.
“When they cut it to four, I think he had two or three baskets in a row out on a (fast) break and got a steal and finished really well,” Cook said of O’Kelley. “So, that was nice. He does a little bit of everything for us, and tonight when other guys were struggling he was able to step up and help with the scoring.”
Up next for Napa is a trip to Petaluma to face Casa Grande at 7 p.m. Meanwhile, Petaluma will host Sonoma Valley on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
On Monday night Casa Grande beat Justin-Siena 49-46, while Sonoma Valley lost to American Canyon 65-47.
Prep2Prep adult contributor Michael Baribault contributed to this story. Follow him on Twitter: @MikeBault. Read his recap of the game on prep2prep.com.
