Behind strong second half defense, Vintage edges Justin-Siena in thriller
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
The margin for error is so thin this year in the Vine Valley Athletic League that anything can happen on any given night.
However, that doesn’t mean that comebacks aren’t out of the realm of possibilities.
That was the case in Friday night’s game when the Vintage boys’ basketball team fought back from a familiar 11-point deficit in the first half to beat Justin-Siena 51-45.
“We always stay calm because we’re confident in our abilities,” Vintage coach Ben Gongora said. “Confidence is tied to ability. So, we didn’t panic.”
The game changed right away in the second half when Vintage (13-9 overall, 6-2 VVAL) deployed their half-court trap, which caused Justin-Siena (9-13, 2-6 VVAL) to turn the ball over.
“It’s a combination of things,” Gongora added. “I think the environment helped. We had a nice little crowd. We already beat them at their place, now we’re here. It’s a little different energy. We played our game.”
“Defensively, they just turned their pressure up and just started trapping us,” Justin-Siena coach Dave Granucci explained. “We talked about it at halftime, we knew they were going to do it, and we were prepared for it. We just didn’t do a good job of taking care of the basketball and because of that, it started to become their pace-of-play. Obviously, when you turn the ball over and you lose possessions like that it leads to layups and open shots.”
But with the game far from decided, Vintage junior guard Logan Nothmann was able to knock down three straight shots from beyond the arc to extend the Crushers lead in the second half.
“You know, the kid suffers a tremendous injury over two months ago (and) stays involved, stays positive. (There’s) no pity party,” Gongora explained. “He hasn’t been in a situation like this in months, and to come in and calmly drain those shots and tickle the twine. They weren’t rim rattlers. These were swish, swish, swish. It’s just a testament to who he is.”
The leading scorer on the night for Vintage was Blake Murray. He ended the night with 16 points and a team-high five rebounds.
Imani Lopez also added 15 points and two rebounds to help the cause.
As for Justin-Siena, they were led by Liam McDevitt who ended the night with 16 points and four rebounds.
“Liam has been great obviously,” Granucci said. “He’s been really good for us. He’s keyed on every night and does a really good job of playing both sides of the floor and defending and also making the right plays on offense.”
Wyatt Humphries added 11 points and three rebounds for the Braves.
“Wyatt’s been playing well,” Granucci added. “I think he had 12 (in the) last game against American Canyon. So, he’s been playing pretty well. He’s been playing really well actually. And he works his tail off and he probably played you know, put that up and limited minutes because he was in foul trouble as well.”
Justin-Siena’s leading rebounder was Keith Binz. He brought in five boards and scored six points on the night.
The win for Vintage sets up a massive game against Petaluma on Saturday night at 7 p.m. Petaluma lost to Sonoma Valley 62-54 on Friday night. Meanwhile, Justin-Siena will have the weekend off before hosting Napa on Monday night at 7 p.m. Napa beat Casa Grande-Petaluma 59-51 on Friday night.
In the previous meetings on January 10th, Petaluma beat Vintage 46-31 and Justin-Siena beat Napa 51-50 in a game that went to overtime. The full up-to-date league standings can be viewed here.
