Vintage puts up a fight in loss to Santa Rosa
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
The Wine Valley tournament has been a humbling experience for the Vintage boys’ basketball team.
Sure, they finished in eighth-place, but this was also the most loaded field in quite some time.
Yet, there was one quarter that doomed the Crushers (3-3) in this one. With the game relatively close after three quarters, Santa Rosa (4-0) led by ten or more for the majority of the quarter.
“You know, I love my guys’ effort,” Vintage coach Ben Gongora said afterward. “I love their fight. As a coach, obviously, you know, you want to win every game. But at the end of the day, I just want my players to compete. And for two games in a row now, actually for three games in a row now the game was in doubt in the second half. So, I’m so proud of my kids for that.
Another thing that was positive for the Crushers was the fact that they had one of their best free throwing games of the season. They made 78% of their free throws by going 7-of-9 from the charity stripe.
“They’re improving, they’re improving,” Gongora added. “Obviously, the free throws was an improvement from yesterday and that’s all I asked constant self-improvement. Let’s just get better each and every day.”
But, they also had one guy in double figures for the game. Imani Lopez scored 15 points and grabbed four rebounds. Blake Murray and Ethan Hemmerlin both added six points as well. Murray brought in four rebounds, while Hemmerlin had three.
Vintage will now have a few days off before hosting Vallejo on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. As for Santa Rosa, they’ll also have a few days off before visiting their in-town rival Maria Carillo on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
