Justin-Siena ramps up physicality and defense in third quarter to get past San Rafael
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
It’s always nice when new faces enter the fold throughout a season. It can go a long way to picking up others who are having an off game.
In Saturday’s non-league contest, that was the case for the Justin-Siena girls basketball team when they beat San Rafael 46-40.
The Braves (3-3) were able to gain their advantage in the third quarter of this one.
According to head coach Andy Bettencourt, it was due to ramped-up physicality.
“I thought our physicality, we were really physical tonight,” he explained. “We got a lot of big rebounds and we’re able to get some run-outs out of it. nd then I just thought, the players are really playing confidently and aggressively on the offensive end. I thought we were able to turn some plays that maybe were broken plays into made shots and finish around the rim a little bit.”
This intensified physicality also shined through on the defensive end where they held the Bulldogs (4-2) to just seven points in the third quarter.
“The players really understood how hard they needed to play defensively,” Bettencourt pointed out. “And then I thought we did a really good job against the team that was probably a little bigger than us of getting in there and battling for rebounds.”
The one thing that could’ve drastically changed this game to where it wouldn’t have been quite as tight is some missed shots. All these shots were layups.
“We would have loved to make more layups,” Bettencourt admitted. “But that being said, focusing on the processes that we got those layups. So we’ll keep practicing and getting better at layups, but really proud of the kids for the amount of layups that we got through execution and just making the right play.”
Justin-Siena was led by a pair of ten-point scorers in the game.
Mary Huen was one of them. She brought in seven rebounds as well. The junior guard converted 6 of 9 free throws in the game as well.
“Mary’s a good player,” Bettencourt said. “I’m not surprised at all by how she played. She played like this all summer, and she’s just really doing a good job of attacking the basket finding her spots. When she gets to the free-throw line, she knocks them down.”
Jordan Washington also finished with 10 points. The freshman center also brought down eight rebounds while also going 6-for-8 at the free-throw line.
“I think she’s a pretty talented freshman,” Bettencourt continued. “She just has a natural ability to go get the ball and a really soft touch around the rim – not to mention knocking down some big free throws for us.”
Magha Jackson also added eight points and five rebounds. She went 2 of 2 from the free-throw stripe as well.
Leading Justin-Siena on the glass was Isabella Wright. She grabbed 14 rebounds and scored eight points, which all came in the second half. She was 2 of 3 at the line as well.
The win moves the Braves back to .500, which makes Bettencourt happy to see after an up-and-down start to the season.
“To bring our record back to three and three is a big deal,” he said of the importance of the win. “ You know, we lost some tough games early. But this team really believes in themselves and they’ve done a good job of refocusing and increasing their effort.”
Justin-Siena will be back in action on Thursday night at 7:30 pm when they face Fortuna in REIBT Tournament at Healdsburg High School.
