Vintage’s big third quarter leads them past Napa in Big Game
By Kyle Foster, photo courtesy of Don Lex (LuckyDuckImages.com)
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
Basketball has a way where it can be cruel to one team, but oh so rewarding to the other.
This is exactly what happened in Friday night’s first edition of Big Game boys basketball that saw Vintage beat Napa 51-41.
In the third quarter, the Crushers (10-8 overall, 4-1 Vine Valley Athletic League) were able to extend a 12-point halftime edge to 22 points after three quarters when they led 41-19.
“We had an intense locker room at halftime and I think that worked,” Vintage coach Ben Gongora said.
“They scored points and we just couldn’t score,” Napa coach Zack Cook explained. “We’ve struggled to score all year, but tonight it was just wow. It was like there was a cap on the rim. I thought we got good shots for the majority that night. We had some balls bouncing around on the rim and not fall.”
The other thing that helped Vintage on the night was their ability to get to the free-throw line where they converted 20 of their 25 opportunities at the line.
“It feels good,” Vintage senior Blake Murray added. “It’s solid just the hard work we’ve been putting in and it paid off.”
Leading the way for the Crushers was Murray. The senior ended the night with a team-high 14 points and 10 rebounds to end the night with a double-double.
“We were just hitting shots,” Murray said. “We were playing our game. We go out there we’re playing offense and defense has really helped our offense.”
Also having good games were Everett Micthell and Josh Kho who both ended the night with eight points. Mitchell grabbed six rebounds on the night and Kho brought in three.
As for Napa (5-14, 1-4 VVAL), they were led by Brayden Greenlee. He ended the night with a game-high 24 points to go along with three rebounds.
Tyler Oda added seven points and four rebounds as well for the Grizzlies.
Napa will be back in action on Wednesday night when they travel to Petaluma at 7 p.m. As for Vintage, they’ll host Santa Rosa on Monday afternoon at 4 p.m. After that, Vintage will have the bye on Wednesday night before hosting American Canyon on Friday night at 7 p.m.
The game will be a rematch for the Crushers who lost to Santa Rosa by a score of 47-36 on December 7th at the Wine Valley Tournament.
In other VVAL action on Friday night, Petaluma beat American Canyon 59-52 and Sonoma Valley beat Justin-Siena 43-37.
