Marin’s fast start from three-point range ends up being too much for Napa Valley College to overcome
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
Basketball can be a brutal game at times.
It can come in a variety of different ways as well, whether it’s injuries or just not getting the breaks to go your way.
The Napa Valley College men’s basketball team saw both in their 77-74 loss to College of Marin on Wednesday night.
With 15.2 left in the game, freshman guard Jaivon Williams went up for a rebound and fell hard and had pain in the neck area that required him to be taken off on a stretcher and transported to Queen of the Valley Medical Center in North Napa for treatment.
“I just saw that there was a lot of contact and a lot of traffic in there,” Napa Valley College coach Steve Ball said of the play where Williams got hurt. “I didn’t see exactly what happened. But I do know that he was complaining about neck pain. He’s a tough kid and for him to be in tears like that, I haven’t seen it before.”
In the game, however, Napa Valley (5-17 overall, 3-7 Bay Valley Conference) found themselves down by 13 points in the first half due in large part to Marin’s shooting from beyond the arc.
“They hit some deep ones there,” Ball pointed out. “They already hit over their average on three-pointers in the first half. And then a couple of them from (Jalen) Chandler were pretty deep. What’re you going to do? You pick your poison and you’re gonna read your scouting report and you’re not going to give them threes. But you’re definitely going to make them air on the side of shooting the three rather than going to the rim like they normally do.”
The Storm got back into the game thanks to a few late runs to end the first half down by only five points.
“We’ve got a lot of grit,” Ball said of the comeback. “We do a great job for stretches at a time defensively. We just stop teams from scoring and they get stuck on a number.”
Williams led Napa Valley on the night with 21 points and 11 rebounds.
“He has the ability to score at all three levels,” Ball said of William’s importance. “He can shoot the three, he can rack it, and he can shoot that mid-range. He’s really nice coming off on-ball screens and he tends to defend one of the better offensive players for each team.”
The Storm also got a nice game from Marin County product Brandon Radu who had 15 points and three rebounds.
“He had a great game at their place,” Ball explained. “Also, he gets revved up for this game.”
Saleem Ali-Musa ended the night with 12 points and brought in eight boards to help the cause.
Zach Swim was Napa Valley’s other scorer in double-figures for the night, as he pitched in 10 points and grabbed five rebounds.
Both of them are Napa High School graduates. Ali-Musa graduated in 2016 and Swim in 2019.
“They’re doing great for us,” Ball said of the local products. “It’s great to have local kids that want to stay local, finally again.”
The Storm will be back in action on Friday night at 5:30 p.m. when the visit Alameda.
In their last meeting on January 2nd, Alameda beat Napa 81-72.
