Vintage uses their full-court press and key plays down the stretch to beat Justin-Siena in nail-biter
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
In the inaugural year of the Vine Valley Athletic League, the Justin-Siena and Vintage High girls basketball teams have played some dandies.
Well, it appears as if things never changed as Vintage was able to squeak past Justin-Siena, 33-28 in a gritty game that could’ve gone either way.
But, the main thing that helped the Crushers (6-9 overall, 1-1 VVAL) prevail ended up being the use of their full-court press, which forced a plethora of Justin-Siena (5-10, 1-1 VVAL) turnovers.
“We don’t normally run that,” Vintage coach Joe Donohoe said. “We just kind of put that in. And so we’re picking up full court man, but (it) seems to work against us. We tend to make mistakes, so we might as well try and do it to other teams.”
“We turned it over a few times against their press, which hurt us,” Justin-Siena coach Andy Bettencourt pointed out. “So, that was tough.”
Another thing that was a difference-maker in this one was the shots from the charity stripe. The Braves went 6-for-16 from the line, while Vintage was 7-for-15.
“I honestly thought they did a better job at the free-throw line than we did,” Bettencourt explained. “And I thought that throughout the game made a big difference. I don’t have the numbers in front of me, but I know that we struggled at the free-throw line and we can’t give away free points like that. And they were just able to make couple more shots than we were.”
Leading the Crushers on the night was freshman guard Lizzie Qui. She ended the night with 16 points and three rebounds.
“She’s a really good player,” Bettencourt said of Qui. “She makes a lot of plays out there. She made some big plays tonight and I think the most impressive thing was she had big free throws down the stretch.”
Another key contributor for Vintage was freshman forward Rachel Galvin who added five points and two rebounds.
“Well, her (Qui) and Rachel Galvin, they’re both 14 years old and they’re playing eighth grade CYO this time last year,” Donohoe said of the effort by the freshman. “So that’s a pretty big step. They’re great the whole teams working together and Lizzy’s, obviously a special player and we’re lucky to have her and she’s super fun to coach and she’s starting to figure out what we need to have done for success at this level.”
Senior Perla Bautista also worked hard on the glass all night long grabbing seven rebounds and adding six points.
As for Justin-Siena, they were led by sophomore forward Isabella Wright. She scored 14 points and brought in eight rebounds.
“She does a good job of getting to the rim and finishing and she made some big plays for us tonight,” Bettencourt said of Wright’s effort.
“Well, you saw the last play we just double-teamed her and put three people in front of the rim,” Donohoe explained. “So, that’s how much respect I have for her.”
Freshman point guard Mary Huen added nine points and grabbed two rebounds.
“I thought Mary was exceptional tonight,” Bettencourt added. “That’s the best game she’s played all season. We just have to keep getting more and more pieces scoring consistently.”
Both teams will be back in action on Thursday night when league play continues. Vintage will host Petaluma at 5:30 p.m. As for Justin-Siena, they’ll face off against yet another crosstown rival when they host Napa at 7 p.m.
In other VVAL games on Tuesday night, Petaluma beat Sonoma Valley 37-28 and Casa Grande-Petaluma beat Napa 65-39.
