Napa’s big first half key in win over Justin-Siena

By Kyle Foster

kfost91197@gmail.com

Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews

The Napa High boys basketball team maintained their undefeated record in league play on Friday night, but they had to earn it.

The Grizzlies (17-5 overall, 8-0 Vine Valley Athletic League) jumped out to a double-digit advantage in the first half over Justin-Siena in their 57-47 win, due in large part to senior guard Stephen Blume’s 16-point first half. Blume made three of his four shots from beyond the arc in the first half. Blume ended the night with 24 points and one rebound.

“I just feel like we were moving real well, so like we have the defense moving around,” Napa senior guard Stephen Blume said of his nice performance. “They kind of lost me a couple times, and we’ve just been working on it all week knocking down open shots and stuff  like that, so we just got it done.”

“We were crisp on offense, we were running our sets well, and getting off good looks, and defensively we were flying around getting deflections and speeding up the game, and that helped us get off to a good start,” Napa coach Zack Cook said of what Napa did well in the first half.  

Zach Swim also had 12 points and three rebounds to help Napa get the victory.

However, in the second half the Braves (11-12, 1-8 VVAL) fought back with a vengeance, which was something that Justin-Siena coach David Granucci was proud of.

“I’m extremely happy,” Granucci explained. “I think we’re playing really good basketball. That’s a good team. They’re physical, they’re athletic, they play extremely hard, and they also are talented. They’ve got some talent for sure, so I thought our guys came out in the first half got sped up by their defense a little bit. But in the second half we talked about slowing it down, as far as just slowing our pace down, not taking the air out of the ball, just slowing our pace down because pressure’s trying to speed you up, that’s what it’s trying to do, and got us out of rhythm. But in the second half we slowed our pace down, found our rhythm, and we got better shots, and did a better job of running our stuff.”    

At one point in the second half Napa only held a slim seven-point advantage.

“They tightened up even more defensively, and we couldn’t get some open looks,” Cook explained of what Justin-Siena did to get back into the game. “At the same time they were getting comfortable and they were able to get into their sets in the half-court and they’re tough to guard when they’re in their sets, so we we got a little lackadaisical there and let them get comfortable in their offense.”    

“Communications were a big part of it,” Blume added. “We lost guys and let them open and stuff like that and just broke down defensively.”

Justin-Siena was led by junior forward Liam McDevitt in the contest. He had 14 points, most of which came in the second half to go along two rebounds.

“He’s doing a good job for sure. He’s a guy who can make shots for us there’s no doubt about it,” Granucci said of the junior. “He’s been asked to do more I think. He’s only a junior, so he’s still learning to defend, share the basketball, and have to make shots. So a lot of different things and rebound and do other things that are non-negotiable things.”

Barrett Donohoe and Jadyn Satten each added nine points. Donohoe had a rebound as well, while Satten brought in nine rebounds on the night.     

Both teams will begin the final full week of VVAL play on Monday night at 7 p.m. Justin-Siena will host Sonoma Valley, while Napa will visit Vintage for the second and final Big Game of the season. In their first meetings on January 9th Sonoma Valley beat Justin-Siena 65-59, while Napa won the first Big Game by a score of 64-56.