Vintage gains upper hand early, doesn’t look back to beat Napa on Senior night, and earn Big Game sweep
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
Whenever it’s Big Game, it seems like the team that seizes control early has the inside line to victory.
It’s also nice to send your seniors out with a victory in not only their final Big Game but their last home game as well.
The Vintage girls’ basketball team was able to do this on Monday night when they beat Napa, 52-34, in the final Big Game of the season.
Vintage head coach Joe Donohoe was happy to send his 6 seniors out with a victory over their rival in their final home game after all they’ve been through the last few years in an anything but normal world.
“I was here when they got here,” he said. “So I’m starting to know these kids the whole time they’re in high school, and that’s really cool. Because you make relationships, form relationships, and it’s a great group of kids. It’s been a challenging few years with everybody’s life with what’s been going on, and for them to show up to practice and work hard, day after day when it’s probably easy to just give in to all the circumstances that we’re all been under, and yet they’ve been working hard, and it shows when they’re out on the court.”
The Crushers (14-11 overall, 6-5 Vine Valley Athletic League) gained the upper hand right away in this one, as they scored the first eight points of the game, and never looked back.
“Shots were going down. We were playing good, hard defense,” Donohoe explained. “We played all seniors the whole first quarter and the whole third quarter and finished the game out.”
The fast start by Vintage was something that Napa High head coach Taylor Willis was expecting.
“I think Vintage always comes out very aggressive, and I did tell my team that that was going to happen,” she explained. “They knew from our last two games that that was what was gonna happen. But I think just the nerves of Big Game always get to least us this last season. It’s usually to both teams, but we had a hard time catching the ball, balls were getting thrown at feet. Vintage was doing the same thing, but they were capitalizing on our mistakes when we weren’t capitalizing on their mistakes.”
Vintage also got another nice Big Game effort from senior guard Liv Hedberg. She finished with a game-high 11 points, 8 of which came in the first half, and a rebound. In the January Big Game, Hedberg also scored 11 points, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that she is consistent in a rivalry game.
“I’ve always been a driver,” Hedberg explained. “I had a three-pointer. I don’t know where that came from. I mean, that felt good, and then just the help of my teammates with their passes. It’s great.”
There were other seniors who also made an impact in this one as well for Vintage. Eden Wood score 8 points and brought in a game-high 12 rebounds, and Gianna McDaniel scored 8 points and brought down a rebound.
“I think we all helped each other out, and Eden and Gianna are some of my best friends on the team,” Hedberg added. “Just having everybody help each other out, all like in the same amount of scoring numbers, it’s just great. Especially for the last game.”
Lizzie Qui (7 points), Kate Kerr (4 points, 10 rebounds), Rachel Galvin (4 points, 2 rebounds), Sophie Lerner (3 points, 4 rebounds), Ella Pridmore (3 points, 1 rebound), Leire Riestra ( 2 points, 1 rebound), and Kayla Cleveland (2 points, 1 rebound) rounded out the scoring for the hosts.
Another key was rebounding, where Vintage won that battle 34-29.
Napa (1-21, 0-8 VVAL) still put forth a pretty good effort. At the end of the third quarter, they had cut the deficit to just 12 points and still had a shot at winning the game.
“They played great,” Willis said of her team’s performance. “It might have been the fact that we had a week off. Maybe that’s what it was and they just desperately needed a week off. But I think they all came out and we’re excited to have their last Big Game and they did some really good things.”
Napa also got a nice effort from Nadia Ali-Musa who finished with 11 points as well and grabbed 4 rebounds in her last Big Game.
“She was in the right spot, she’s tracking the rebounds,” Willis added. “I thought she had some really good putbacks.”
Sofia Tinnon (7 points, 5 rebounds), Isabella Jasso-Nelson (5 points, 7 rebounds), Joy Bradbury (4 points, 1 rebound), Chloe Dinsdale (3 points, 2 rebounds), Jemma Ceja Delgado (3 points, 2 rebounds), and Evelyn Guia Flores (1 point) rounded out the scoring for Napa.
Both teams will finish their seasons this week. Napa will visit Petaluma on Tuesday and play five games total this week. Vintage will finish their season on Wednesday night when they visit Justin-Siena. In the last meeting, Justin-Siena beat Vintage 46-35.
In other VVAL action Monday night, Justin-Siena beat Sonoma Valley 35-26 and American Canyon beat Petaluma 63-37. To view the updated league standings, go here.
