Justin-Siena starts strong, cruises past El Molino
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
Whenever you can hold a team to less than 30 points, you’ve played a good game.
Yet, that’s exactly what the Justin-Siena boys basketball team was able to do on Monday night as they beat El Molino 65-24.
The Braves (2-2) put this game away early by going on 14-5 run to begin the game. They would eventually end the quarter up 21-5. But much of the reason they were up by that big lead was because of senior guard Liam McDevitt who ended the night with 17 points, 12 of which came in the first frame.
“I don’t know, I was just open,” McDevitt explained. “ I like finding the soft spots in the zone. My teammates were finding me and I was getting open looks.”
McDevitt also ended the night with six rebounds.
“Liam is extremely important for sure,” Justin-Siena second-year coach David Granucci said. “He can score the ball for us and could defend for us as well, rebounds the ball does a lot of different things. I mean he brings a ton of energy to the game for us. He leads us in a lot of areas. I think what people see is the fact that he can score the basketball. But he does a lot of different things for us.”
However, it wasn’t just a one-man show for Justin-Siena on the night. Zach Johnson ended the evening with eight points and a rebound. Keith Binz, Aidan Cushing, and Wyatt Humphries all added seven points as well. Humphries led the way on the glass by bringing in eight rebounds on the night, while Binz grabbed four, and Cushing had three.
“We don’t want to be a team that just relies on one person to score the basketball for us,” Granucci explained. “We also want to be an unselfish team that shares the ball moves the ball around and tries to find the right shot, making sure the guys are shooting the right shots. And we did that tonight, so it was good.”
“I can definitely rely on my teammates,” McDevitt added. “That definitely helps take some pressure off of me.”
Another thing that helped the Braves in this one was strong free-throw shooting. They began the night by knocking down their first ten shots from the line before ending the night going 14-of-17 from the line.
“Ever since our first game where we weren’t hitting free throws we’ve been practicing those,” McDevitt said. “That’s good to hear.”
“It’s huge. I mean, we want to get to the line,” Granucci pointed out. “We know that’s a high percentage shot, one of the highest percentage shots in the game. So, if we can get to the line and make our free throws is going to give us a chance. We feel like we work on we could probably work on a more, but we have some guys that have worked on their shot and worked on free throws throughout the summer and throughout the fall a little bit.
“So, we feel like we got some guys who can knock them down,” Granucci continued. “ I think a lot of it too is we didn’t first two games, our guys couldn’t make free throws, and then all of a sudden that kind of shifted because our guys found their legs found their rhythm.”
The Braves will have a day off before they begin the REIBT tournament at Healdsburg against Middletown on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.
