Missed free throws haunt Justin-Siena in loss to American Canyon in regular season finale
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
When you leave points on the floor, it can come back to bite you.
On Friday night that was the case for the Justin-Siena girls’ basketball team as they lost a 37-35 heartbreaker against American Canyon.
While neither team shot particularly well from the stripe, the Braves (15-10 overall, 8-4 Vine Valley Athletic League) got more chances from the line.
“Free throws – I don’t have the stats in front of me, but I know we missed a lot of free throws,” Justin-Siena head coach Andy Bettencourt said as to what cost his team the contest. “Throughout the game, it just kind of just came back to bite us. I felt when we had played well, we weren’t able to really take advantage of some of the things that I thought we did well because we missed our free throws.”
In the game, the Braves converted just 7 of 15 shots from the line. Meanwhile, American Canyon (18-7, 8-3 VVAL) made 5 of 10 shots that were free.
Out of the half, the Wolves went on a 6-0 run which gave them their first lead of the game. It also proved to give them momentum as well.
“If I remember correctly, they hit a couple of shots,” Bettencourt said as to what happened. “ They’re a good team, and we knew coming in this was going to be this kind of one-possession game. Basically, they made one more play than we did today.”
Another thing that flustered Justin-Siena was the change to a 2-3 zone, which slowed senior Isabella Wright down.
“I think the zone, they funneled it inside,” Bettencourt explained. “I thought we probably settled for too many outside shots at times.”
Justin-Siena also got a nice effort from senior Isabella Wright. She started the game on fire scoring 10 points in the first quarter. She scored two more points to finish with a game-high of 12 points, plus 10 rebounds to finish with a double-double.
“I thought her physicality was awesome,” Bettencourt added. “Obviously scoring early and making plays, but she battled underneath, and I thought she got some really great contested rebounds throughout the game.”
Megha Jackson was also a bright spot, as she scored 7 points and brought in 4 rebounds. She was clutch down the stretch as she scored six of her points in the second half.
“Megha was awesome,” Bettencourt said. “Megha has had some great games this season, and I think one of the brightest spots for us going into the playoffs is seeing Megha play like that because we know how much she can give us.”
Bella Balmaceda (5 points, 1 rebound), Jordan Washington (3 points, 9 rebounds, 1 blocked shot), Mary Heun (3 points, 4 rebounds), Cassie Richardson (2 points, 5 rebounds), Hannah Spare (2 points), and Charmaine Griffin (1 point, 5 rebounds) also scored for the Braves.
The regular season is now complete for Justin-Siena. They will find out where they stand on Sunday in the CIF North Coast Sectio Divison 4 playoffs. Meanwhile, American Canyon will finish up their season on Saturday at 1 pm when they visit Napa High.
