Solid defensive effort leads Vintage past Napa in final Big Game of season
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
There are times in basketball when a team is going to start out hot. The key is withstanding the early haymaker and then playing your game.
That’s what the Vintage girls’ basketball team did on Wednesday night when they beat Napa 58-35 in their final game of the season.
Napa (0-14 overall, 0-11 Vine Valley Athletic League) started the game off with their rhythm on offense and they even held the lead halfway through the first quarter. However, midway through the quarter, Vintage came to life and they didn’t look back after that.
“I think Tinnon got that second foul and we took here out and we still kind of hung in it there. But she’s a big offensive threat,” Napa head coach Taylor Willis said as to what changed in the first quarter. “I think that would have kept us a little bit closer in the game or even kept us in the lead at that point before going into (the) half. So I think that kind of took a turning point. I think the fact that Vintage seemed to not be able to miss tonight – it seemed like they were they had a really good shooting night, good finishing night. That also didn’t help and on our side, we weren’t hitting shots.”
“Weathering the Big Game emotions plain and simple,” Vintage head coach Joe Donohoe explained. “It’s called Big Game for a reason. I felt if we continued to keep our pace-of-play up and shared the ball we could get everyone involved in the team aspect of defending and scoring.”
The Crushers (7-5, 7-4 VVAL) were also able to get a good amount of points off the fast-break thanks to their defense.
“We knew we were short-handed tonight dressing only 8 players, so the focus was to sell out defensively and rebound and stay out of foul trouble,” Donohoe said of the defensive effort. “We know if we’re disruptive defensively it will lead to layups if the commitment is there — and it was — tip to buzzer.”
“I think we struggled against the 1-3-1, which is not typical because we did practice it and they know how to pass against it, ” Willis pointed out. “I think what Vintage did well is they baited us into our weakness, which was shooting. So we went to shoot shots and we didn’t make them and if we would have made them it would’ve been a different game.”
Leading the way for Vintage on the night was Lizzie Qui. The sophomore guard finished the night with 16 points and seven rebounds.
“Lizzie was tremendous tonight with her confidence and calmness,” Donohoe pointed out. “16 points, 6 rebounds, 8 assists, 2 steals is a full night. She’s a fantastic player. We may have only had two double-digit scorers but we had a super balanced attack offensively because of sharing the ball so well.”
Katy Gibbs finished the night with 10 points and brought in nine rebounds.
“Katy Gibbs made the most of her opportunity tonight with ten points and eight rebounds,” Donohoe explained. “She’s worked hard all year and the results of that were evident tonight. I’m very proud of her.”
Kate Kerr brought in a game-high 11 rebound and also added eight points.
“Kate has really blossomed as a leader on this team,” Donohoe said of Kerr. “She is a great kid and has really grown as an all-around player this year that us coached can count on and rely on.”
Napa was led by Sofia Tinnon. The junior finished the night with nine points and five rebounds. She also made 5 of her 6 free throws on the night.
In her final Big Game, Sophia Mostow finished the night with seven points and one rebound.
In the only other VVAL game Wednesday night, American Canyon beat Petaluma 71-61. In Monday’s game, Justin-Siena beat Sonoma Valley 40-36. The game was originally scheduled for Wednesday and moved.
Napa will play their last game of the season on Friday when they face Rancho Cotate at 6 pm. For Vintage, the season is now complete.
Both teams are hoping to be able to get back into the gym to start summer activities after the school year comes to an end. The two teams also navigated the COVID-19 part of the season well.
Next season, Vintage will return their entire team. Napa will only lose four seniors, which means they’ll have a good amount of players back as well next winter.
