Vintage plays stifling defense in win over Petaluma to tighten up race for league title
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
The race for the Vine Valley Athletic League boys basketball title just got a bit more interesting.
You could also say that revenge is sweet.
Both things would be true because the Vintage boys’ basketball team avenged one of their league losses with a 49-26 dispatching of Petaluma. In the first meeting, it was the other way around, with Petaluma beating Vintage 46-31.
The game wasn’t close from the opening tip due to the fact that the Crushers (14-9 overall, 7-2 VVA) deployed their half-court trap defense, which forced Petaluma (15-7, 6-2 VVAL) to turn the ball over.
“Let’s just go and throw a haymaker and see what happens,” Vintage coach Ben Gongora said of starting the game in their trap defense. “Because at this point in league, I think every team’s gonna prepare for us. I think every team’s coming in and saying, ‘we know they’re going to trap.’”
However, it wasn’t all that easy early on when it seemed as if Vintage was having some issues securing the rebounds.
“That’s a little frustrating because I think a lot of that is just guts,” Gongora explained. “We did good at the defensive end and then maybe we didn’t go that extra dive on the floor for that rebound. Or maybe we didn’t do that extra or maybe we just assumed our teammates gonna make it and we know we’re always supposed to assume that they’re going to miss it.”
It also helped that the Crushers had two scorers in double figures on the night as well.
Imani Lopez led the way with 14 points and two rebounds.
Logan Nothmann added 13 points and five rebounds to help the cause.
Ethan Hemmerlin also had a nice game by scoring nine points and adding two rebounds.
On the glass, Vintage was led by Josh McCormick and Blake Murray who both brought in five boards. McCormick ended the night with seven points and Murray had four.
The win is significant because it now creates a three-way tie in the loss column between Vintage, Petaluma, and Sonoma Valley.
Speaking of Sonoma Valley, that’s who the Crushers will face next Wednesday at 7 p.m. on Senior Night. Meanwhile, Petaluma will host crosstown rival Casa Grande on Wednesday at 7 p.m. as well.
In the previous meetings, Petaluma beat Casa Grande 73-60 and Vintage beat Sonoma Valley 60-51.
The only other league game on Saturday night saw American Canyon beat Casa Grande 70-62. On Monday, Napa will visit Justin-Siena in a game that was originally scheduled for Saturday.
