Napa Valley gains double digit edge in first half, holds on late to beat Skyline in nail-biter
By Kyle Foster, photo courtesy of Eric Thompson (Shamboozled.com)
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
One of the primary keys to winning a basketball game is playing solid defense and swapping looks at the perfect time to keep them guessing.
This is what the Napa Valley College men’s basketball team did on Tuesday night as they edged Skyline of San Bruno, 73-66.
The Storm (2-5) were able to gain their largest lead of the game, which was a 13-point edge in the first half, and never gave the lead up the rest of the way.
“Hats off to them, they’re a good team,” Napa Valley College head coach Steve Ball said of the first half where his team went up by a sizable margin. “Without an opponent like that, we don’t have a game like this. But I think he went into his bench because we were stifling what he was doing a little bit in the half-court and our guys love to pick up full court, and when they smell blood in the water, they’re going to really swarm.
“Without their two primary ball handlers on the floor, we extended our press a little and got some traps from running jumps,” the coach recalled. “We took advantage of that when they didn’t have as good of a primary ball handler on the floor.”
Another thing that added to the cause of the big lead in the first half was that Napa Valley went on a 12-0 run that made it 22-12 with 6:29 left in the first half. At this time, they used their half-court trap that led to a pair of Skyline turnovers. They also held Skyline to 38.7% shooting in the game as well.
“With their personnel that was on the floor, we saw an opportunity to take advantage of that,” Ball said of the half-court trap deployment. “It wasn’t necessarily time and score, it was more personnel that was out there.”
Maybe the most crucial part of the victory is the fact that it breaks a four-game skid, where the Storm had been in all but one of the games. Ball said this could be a turning point of the season for his squad.
“The previous two games we’ve played against teams that are unlike most teams that we’re going to see with the size and length of those teams,” Ball said of the game’s impact and if it could be a turning point before Bay Valley Conference play.
It also helped that the Storm distributed the scoring duties and ended the night with four players in double figures.
Leading all of them was Cameron Joseph who finished with a game-high of 18 points, while also adding a rebound, and three assists. The sophomore exploded for 15 of his 18 points in the second half of the game as well. He was also 3 of 7 from beyond the arc, which included a clutch shot off the bank with just 3:51 remaining that made it 63-59 after Skyline (4-3) had cut the deficit to a point.
“When Cam plays like he’s that guy as they say in this generation, then the guys follow that,” Ball said of Joseph’s impact. “We’ve talked in the preseason that he wants to wear number one because he is that guy. He doesn’t want to be a number two anymore. When he plays like a number one, then the guys follow that, and then we’re really difficult.”
Also helping the cause was Albert Dennis who finished with a double-double of 16 points, 16 rebounds, an assist, and a steal. Dennis did the bulk of his damage in the first half where he had 15 points.
“When he plays against guards that aren’t 6’5” and long, he can get downhill against anybody,” Ball said of Dennis who was the only player to have a double-double for the hosts in the game. “He’s so physically tough, and he’s just fearless with the basketball.”
Off the bench, Andrew Navarro finished with 13 points, two steals, two assists, and a rebound. The freshman also went 4-for-4 from the charity stripe. Navarro scored 9 of his points in the second half.
“Offensively, he’s very helpful,” Ball said of Navarro who plays off the bench. “He’s a great utility guy because we start to start four guards basically and he can come in for any one of them and help us out because he’s physically strong. Also, he finishes well around the rim and he had two finishes in the last four minutes that helped us separate and relax our guys a bit.”
Rounding out the scoring foursome was Chris Thompson. He finished with 12 points, three rebounds, an assist, and a steal.
Napa Valley will now have a nice bit of time off with the Thanksgiving holiday before playing a pair of games at College of the Redwoods, where they will face Shasta-Redding on December 2nd at 3 pm and Sierra-Rocklin on December 3rd at 2 pm. The Storm’s next home game will be on December 8th at 5:30 when they host San Joaquin Delta of Stockton.
