Justin-Siena battles back from slow start to beat American Canyon
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
Sometimes a slow start can be too much for a team to overcome to win a game. But with others, it just takes them a while to get going.
The ladder was the case for the Justin-Siena girls’ basketball team on Tuesday night when they beat American Canyon 36-25.
The first quarter was far from friendly to the Braves (7-14 overall, 3-4 Vine Valley Athletic League) as they trailed 6-2 when it all ended.
However, when the second quarter came around it was as if a switch was flipped by Justin-Siena. The Braves only allowed the Wolves (8-14, 1-6 VVAL) to score four points in the quarter while scoring 12 of their own.
“I think number one, we took care of the ball a little bit better and that got us some opportunities,” Justin-Siena coach Andy Bettencourt said. “But, I think the big thing was that the girls did a really nice job of understanding that we could attack the basket and we got some points in the paint. I don’t have the stats on me but I’m assuming we had a lot of points in the paint tonight and that started to just lead to other opportunities. And then they’re in the fourth quarter when they had to pick up the pressure, I thought we did a nice job of breaking the press and getting a couple (of) layups.”
Another thing that played a big difference in this one from the second quarter on for Justin-Siena was their rebounding.
“We have the ability with our height to rebound well, but rebounding is so much more than that,” Bettencourt explained. “I think we did have a little bit more of a commitment to it the last three quarters.”
This is also the first time the Braves have won back-to-back games this season.
“It feels good coming off I think six games that we were taking our loss in,” Justin-Siena sophomore forward Isabella Wright said. “But it feels good.”
The Braves were led by Wright who ended the night with 11 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, which led Justin-Siena in both categories.
“Bella’s really turned it around,” Bettencourt pointed out. “She had a good game against Petaluma, so we’re excited. She’s really done a nice job of slowing it down and making sure that she’s square and she’s going to get those opportunities and finish.”
Also having a solid night for Justin-Siena was center, Karlie Wells. In her first game back from injury, she added nine points and seven rebounds.
“We haven’t had Karlie for I think 10 of our last 11 games,” Bettencourt added. “So having her back was was huge.”
Junior Samai Wilson also was key to the cause as she scored eight points and had eight boards on the night as well.
“Samai coming in off the bench and making those plays was really big for us and (I’m) really happy for her,” Bettencourt explained. “She keeps working hard and she took advantage of an opportunity tonight.”
“Samai, she did amazing coming off the bench today,” Wright added.
Justin-Siena will be back in action on Thursday night at 7 p.m. when they host Vintage. American Canyon will have their final bye of league play before hosting Casa Grande-Petaluma Saturday night at 7 p.m.
In the first meetings, Vintage beat Justin-Siena 33-28 and Casa Grande beat American Canyon 59-23.
In other VVAL games on Tuesday night, Casa Grande beat Vintage 51-39 and Napa beat Sonoma Valley 36-35.
