Thanks to monster third quarter, distributed scoring Justin-Siena beats Napa on Senior Night
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
Having four double-digit scorers is always a good recipe to win a basketball game.
On Friday night, this was a major key as the Justin-Siena boys basketball team did that to beat Napa 80-51.
“Distributed scoring is huge, and we’ve got a lot of guys that can score,” Justin-Siena head coach Nick Guillory said. “So getting consistent 10-plus point efforts from four guys will go a long way in playoff time because there’s going to be close games, so we got to ensure that we’re running our stuff and getting good looks.”
Leading the way was junior Vince Jackson who finished with 12 points and 8 rebounds.
High energy guy Nate Spare finished with 11 points, 7 rebounds, and 2 blocks.
“Nate is a consummate energy guy, great offensive rebounder has uncanny timing with his jumps, great leaping ability, excellent touch around the rim,” Guillory pointed out. “When you can put it all together in a game like this, he’s not only exciting to watch as a coach, but helps us a ton.”
Travis Hightower (10 points, 5 rebounds, 1 block) and Ma’el Blunt (10 points) were the other two scorers in double digits.
Asher Cleary (9 points, 1 rebound), Nick Jeramaz (6 points, 5 rebounds), Eric Gutierrez (5 points, 1 rebound), Caden McDevitt (4 points, 4 rebounds), DJ Ryan (2 points, 5 rebounds), Orlando Martinez (2 points, 1 rebound), and Andrew Grimshaw (2 points) rounded out the Justin-Siena scoring attack.
Another thing that helped the Braves (15-9, 5-6 Vine Valley Athletic League) was that they were able to use their defense to get easy buckets and pull away in the third quarter where they scored an astounding 36 points.
“We started getting stops that turned into transition layups,” Justin-Siena head coach Nick Guillory explained. “So it all starts on the defensive end, and when we’re able to do that – we just score easier.”
Meanwhile, Napa High head coach Joel Garcia once again to his team’s rebounding woes as to why the game got out of hand.
“That’s been our trouble this whole season, and it really hurt us again tonight,” he explained.
Justin-Siena also sent their four seniors out with a bang by winning on Senior Night. It was something Jesus Hernandez was happy about.
“It just means the world to me,” he explained. “I’m just trying to put a show for these fans, and I want to make everyone happy on the team – all the coaching staff. It just shows that we worked a lot throughout the whole season.
Napa (2-23, 0-12 VVAL) was also led by seniors in their final game. Andrew Remboldt finished with a game-high 16 points and grabbed 6 rebounds. Tyler Oda finished with 11 points and 2 rebounds. Dylan Newman finished with 10 points, 11 rebounds, and 2 blocks to end his high school basketball career with a double-double.
“It’s beautiful to see those guys, work hard on their last game and just show the dedication,” Garcia said of his senior scorers. “We also had our other seniors, Ross Cringain and Jacobpo (Pizzinato) so all those guys – the sacrifices they made this season and it’s happy to see them come out with a bang.”
Miles MacPherson (11 points, 2 rebounds) and Jared Alvarado-Martinez (1 point, 1 rebound) rounded out the scoring for the Grizzlies.
Justin-Siena will conclude its regular season on Saturday at 4 pm when they host Petaluma. They will find out their playoff fate on Sunday. Meanwhile, Napa’s season is now complete.
In other VVAL action on Friday night, Vintage beat Sonoma Valley 72-58. To view the updated league standings, go here.
