Justin-Siena tightens up defense in second half to beat McKinleyville, punch ticket to CIF North Coast Section semifinals and break 30-year NorCal Regional drought
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
One of the coolest things about sports is it gives you the chance to see something happen that hasn’t in a long time.
On Saturday night this happened as the Justin-Siena boys’ basketball team beat McKinleyville 55-38 in the CIF North Coast Section Divison 4 quarterfinals.
The victory means the Braves (17-10) will make their first trip to the CIF Northern California Regional Championships for the first time in 30 years. This was long before all of these players were born.
For Justin-Siena head coach Nick Guillory, he was thrilled with the accomplishment.
“Anytime you could do something for the first time in 30 years, it’s pretty special,” Guillory said of the trip to the NorCal Regionals. “I think you can focus on the last two wins, which were excellent. But the real important thing is the foundation that was laid for this team since the summer and the fall under Coach (George) Nessman. The things that he instilled and installed are carrying us through these later games. The kids are doing the work, I was super fortunate to walk into a great situation with these guys. So on a personal note, I’m ecstatic. But I’m mostly excited for the program, the kids, the administration, and the entire school.”
Justin-Siena was able to put the game away in the second half by holding McKinleyville (16-9) to just 11 total points. They also went on runs of 7-0 and 8-0 to push the lead to 18.
“I think we held them to 11 points in the second half, which was surprising to hear for me,” Guillory pointed out. “ But I tell the guys, ‘offensively some nights your shots go in, sometimes they don’t. But you can bring your defense no matter where you go.’ The way that we were physical through screens, rebounding, working together connected talking about it’s all on the defensive end. So if you hold a team to 11, all you got to do is run your stuff and execute and you’re probably gonna win, and we did that. So I was pleased.”
Junior Travis Hightower said a strong defensive effort in the second half was something they focused on out of the break.
“I think defense definitely changed,” he explained. “I think it was team defense and a team effort and team execution, so I think we performed pretty well.”
The Braves also did another key thing well in this game – make free throws. They made an astounding 12 of 5 foul shots in this one.
“Playoffs come down to a few possessions sometimes and free throws are so key you have to make them at least in my opinion, an 80% clip to exceed that tonight is outstanding,” Guillory said of his team’s free-throw shooting.
Hightower also had a monster 20-point, 5 rebound effort. That was the game-high as well.
The junior did most of his damage in the first half of this one where he scored 12 points. He also made 6 of 7 free throws in the game.
“I think my three-point shot was falling,” Hightower said of his monster game. “I think the passes from my teammates and stuff like were really helped me like them setting me up for a good shot. So I was able to get open shots from that.”
Maybe the most crucial moment in the contest came at the end of the first half when Hightower was fouled at the three-point line with just a few ticks left till the break and the game was tied at 27. He converted three massive free throws to send Justin-Siena to the break with a three-point lead.
“Travis is a big-time player, big-time player, and big-time game,” Nick Guillory said of Hightower’s effort. “(He was) confident, knocked down some threes, made his free throws because he gets fouled more than he gets called for because he attacks so well. So it’s super important when he does get to the line, he knocks them down and he did, so great free-throw shooter.”
Rounding out the scoring for Justin-Siena was Asher Cleary (11 points, 6 rebounds, and a blocked shot), Jaden Washington (9 points, 6 rebounds), Ma’el Blunt (8 points, 5 rebounds), Vince Jackson (3 points, 5 rebounds), Caden McDevitt (3 points), and Jesus Hernandez (1 point).
The victory means the No. 4 Braves will move onto the semifinals where they’ll meet No. 1 seed Marin Catholic on Wednesday night at 7 pm in Kentfield. Marin Catholic beat Lick-Wilmerding 67-61 on Saturday night. You can view the updated bracket here.
