Napa Valley drops one-point heartbreaker against Sacramento City College in home-opener
By Kyle Foster, photo courtesy of Don Lex (LuckyDuckImages.com)
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
Losing a game by a point means so much could’ve been done to change the result.
As it would turn out, there would be a few plays that were key when Sacramento City College beat Napa Valley 76-75 in their home-opener on Wednesday night.
With 15 ticks left on the clock, the Storm (0-3 overall) had a chance to win the game. However, they would put up a total of five shots on the possession all of which came up empty with no shooting fouls being called to give the Panthers their first win of the season.
“We put ourselves in a position where we left it in the officials’ hands, and we were hoping that we’d get a call on one of those,” Napa Valley College head coach Steve Ball explained. “I thought we had four tip-ins, and I thought there was enough contact on at least two of them.”
The other moment that had a lot of significance in the game came with 8:11 remaining in the game when freshman guard Chris Thompson was called for a technical foul when Napa held a 62-58 lead. The foul was called on a three-point shot where Thompson thought he got all ball, but the officials saw differently and sent Zach Moll to the line for three shots, where he drained two after Sacramento City made both technical free-throws.
“I think they may have gotten their first lead of the game when they got the technical foul shot,” Ball said. “Chris, you have to live for his passion for the game, and along with that comes his passion for the game. So he needs to learn to compose and that he can’t say certain things to the officials. He felt like he was undercut on a three-pointer, And then they called on the next couple possessions later, they called the same file that he felt he got and the call wasn’t there.”
Napa Valley started fast in the contest. After going down 11-6 early on, they answered with a 13-0 run that lasted till the 11:54 mark of the first half. They would also go on a 22-2 run that lasted till there was 9:57 left in the first half. At one point, Napa Valley held a 13-point lead in the game as well.
“We can really push the ball, we can really push (the) tempo,” Ball pointed out. “And I feel like when they were playing man-to-man, they couldn’t stay in front of us, and we were really executing off the basketball. We were doing our dribble handoffs, our on-ball screens, our flare screen – everything was working.”
On the night, the Storm was led by a three-headed monster that each had 17 points.
Jaivon Williams went 4 for 6 at the free-throw line before ending the night with 17 points and 12 rebounds. Shakir Howard also added 17 points and five rebounds. He converted 3 of 4 free throws as well. Thompson was the final member to score 17 while also grabbing a rebound. He did most of his damage in the first half.
Albert Dennis added seven rebounds and eight points. Brian Green grabbed eight rebounds and scored three points.
This was the Storm’s first home game since February 21st of 2020 as well. That’s a total of 628 days.
Next for Napa Valley is a four-hour trip north to Eureka to face College of the Redwoods on Saturday at 3 pm.
