American Canyon’s speed, shooting proves to be too much for Napa
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
There’s a saying in sports that speed kills.
So, when you’re overmatched athletically that’s something that hard to overcome.
That was the case in Wednesday night’s Vine Valley Athletic League contest when American Canyon defeated Napa 87-71.
The Grizzlies start the game fast by gaining a 7-2 edge before American Canyon ran off eight straight points and led 23-17 at the end of the first quarter.
The Wolves (6-7 overall, 2-1 VVAL) went into the half with a 13-point edge and cruised from then on.
A big reason they were able to gain such an advantage was the fact they were able to break Napa’s 2-3 zone defense with their 11 made shots from three-point range. When Napa (5-13, 1-3 VVAL) changed it up and went to a man-to-man defense, they were then able to get easy layups.
“They’re really quick and they shot really well,” Napa coach Zack Cook explained.
Despite the loss, it was one of the best offensive outputs for Napa of the season so far.
They were led by junior guard Brayden Greenlee who dropped 24 points and three rebounds.
Another player having a nice game was senior guard Danny Ruiz who scored 14 points and brought in two rebounds.
The last player in double figures for the Grizzlies was freshman guard Tyler Oda who added 13 points and had four boards.
“I was just more focused on how poor our defense was tonight,” Cook said. “Our offense, it’s been getting better lately. But defensively, we were just terrible tonight and that’s kind of what’s on my mind right now.”
Jack Hunter also brought in four rebounds to be a co-leader on the rebounding effort, all while scoring six points on the night.
The game is also a bit of revenge for American Canyon after Napa won the game at Messner Gym last year to clinch their first league title in 28 years and the VVAL tournament championship game that was played at American Canyon.
Both teams will be back in action on Friday night at 7 p.m. American Canyon will host Petaluma. As for Napa, they’ll head across town for the first Big Game matchup of the season with Vintage.
“We’ll get in the gym tomorrow and get prepared,” Cook added. “It’s always a fun game for the kids.”
Napa will look to extend their Big Game winning streak to three games following last year’s season sweep of their rivals.
In Wednesday’s other VVAL games, Vintage defeated Sonoma Valley 60-51 and Petaluma beat their crosstown rival Casa Grande 73-60.
