Napa uses big third quarter run to beat American Canyon, claim VVAL tournament title
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
AMERICAN CANYON-The Napa High boys basketball team proved that they’re the champion of the Vine Valley Athletic League.
Well, they did it again anyway.
With their 62-48 win over American Canyon they backed up their regular-season crown.
“League title was awesome, but coming back and winning this as well that’s super cool,” Napa senior guard Stephen Blume said of winning the VVAL tournament. “It’s kinda like we defended it (regular-season title), since we can’t next year since I’m a senior. So, it’s kinda like a little defend.”
They also picked up their 23rd win of the season, which makes them the winningest team in Napa High School history.
But it didn’t come easy, as the Wolves (14-14) came out by making all but two of their first quarter shots. American Canyon jumped out to a 17-6 lead at one point in the first quarter; however, when the quarter came to and end they only held a three-point edge.
“They came out with a good game plan and hit us in the mouth early,” Napa coach Zack Cook said of the hot start by American Canyon. “I knew (AC coach) Brett (Wedding) would have them ready to go. They were shooting really well from three and we just said ‘stay the course’. We felt like they weren’t going to be able to keep shooting that well all night, and we just kept chipping away and were able to pull it out.”
“I think it was just in our mind that we were hungry, so we just came out and we did what we did,” Blume said of the comeback. “And we kinda weathered the storm as (coach) Cook said. They came out hot, and we just held it together. They thought we were going to quit and we didn’t and we just kept pushing till the end.”
Then, in the third quarter the Grizzlies (23-5) got hot, as thy went on a 20-2 run to gain some breathing room.
“We were transitioning a little better and we got a few turnovers out of out (full-court) press, which helped us get some momentum,” Cook said of what went right during the third period.
Napa had three double-digit scorers on the night. Blume had 19 points and a rebound on the night.
Zach Swim also scored 19 points on the night, but he added ten rebounds to end the night with a double-double.
“That kids crazy,” Blume said of his fellow captain. “He’s huge, so he’s just a big part of the team.”
Brock Bowers added 11 points with 10 rebounds to end the night with a double-double of his own.
On Sunday morning at 11:30 am the CIF North Coast section will announce the playoff brackets. Napa will be in the Division 1 bracket, while American Canyon will be in Division 2. You can watch Sunday’s selection show by going here.
Girls VVAL Championship game: Casa Grande 41, Vintage 37
Vintage lost a heartbreaker in the girls league championship game to Casa Grande.
Vintage (20-7) led in the by one point late in the game before Casa Grande (18-9) came down and nailed a dagger three pointer. It also didn’t help that the Crushers had a series of turnovers that hurt them.
Both teams will find out their playoff fates on Sunday morning.
