Little things end up hurting Napa Valley in close loss to state-ranked Los Medanos
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
When a game is close, it seems like the little things always come to the front.
On Friday night, this was the case for the Napa Valley College men’s basketball team when they lost 100-95 to state-ranked No. 25 Los Medanos of Pittsburg.
Napa Valley College head coach Steve Ball said that in games like this, it comes down to being better in three possessions.
“We always say every game comes down to three possessions, and you don’t know which three,” the coach explained. “So that’s the problem, and if we’d taken care of one more offensive rebound, one less transition bucket, one more close out one more moment – any one of those could change the complexion of the game.”
Throughout the game, Napa Valley (4-15 overall, 3-5 Bay Valley Conference) was able to keep the game within double-digits. They held the lead with 11:24 left in the contest after going on a 10-0 run.
Unfortunately, Los Medanos (14-3, 3-2 BVC) answered the scoring run with an 11-0 run that lasted till there was 6:38 left in the game.
“We say KYP all the time – know your personnel. There’s no perfect player out there,” Ball said. “Everybody’s got a strength and a weakness, and it’s kind of like playing poker and playing blackjack. You know what you’re going to live with and you know what you’re going to not live with, and there were a couple of players that don’t shoot the ball as well from three.”
Another thing that haunted the Storm was something that is always controllable – free throws. They converted 17 of 25 free throws. Los Medanos made 15 of their 21 free throws in this one.
“We said the other day that everytime we shoot over 60% from the free-throw line that we can win games,” Ball said of this lost opportunity of free throws in the game.
A large reason why Napa Valley was able to come so close to getting the victory was the fact that they had four double-digit scorers. They were led by Shakir Howard. The sophomore forward scored a team-high 26 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to finish with a double-double. He erupted for 21 points in the second half of this one while also making two shots from three-point range, and making 6 of 10 free throws.
“He was aggressive. After he got going, is when he made his threes,” Ball said of Howard’s monster game. “And he’s got a more frequently I understand that when he plays the game from the inside out where he gets to his spots and gets buckets going to the rim he’s a much better scorer.”
Also having a solid night was Ben Trette. The freshman guard scored 21 points and grabbed a rebound. He also made three shots from beyond the arc and made 2 of 4 free throws.
“He’s a great basketball player and he’s an even better young man,” Ball pointed out. “He does everything we ask of him. He guarded their guard who can shoot the heck out of the ball, and he sticks to the script defensively. Laterally, he may not be the fastest guy, he may not be able to jump the highest, but he is on script pretty much every play.”
Cameron Joesph made four shots from deep and scored 16 points. He also brought in eight rebounds and made both free throws.
Jaivon Williams finished with 11 points and seven rebounds. He made 3 of 5 free throws as well.
In a weird bit of scheduling, both teams will meet again on Monday night at 7:30 pm in Pittsburg. It will be a makeup game from January 4th.
