Vintage plays lockdown and intense defense in second half to beat Justin-Siena, get first VVAL win of year
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
When a game is a defensive slugfest, it feels like it just takes one major spurt or two to put the game away. On second thought, this may have been a failed analogy used to describe a pitcher’s duel in baseball. Anyhow, we’ll save that one for the spring.
However you want to say it, this was true on Thursday night when the Vintage girls’ basketball team beat Justin-Siena, 34-15, to pick up their first win in Vine Valley Athletic League play at the Daniel J. Clark Gymnasium.
The Crushers (9-7 overall, 1-1 VVAL) were able to seize control in the game with a pair of runs that gave them the breathing room that was needed after a very tight first half of play. In the third quarter, they went on a 10-1 run and would hold Justin-Siena to just two points in the third quarter.
Vintage also went on a massive 14-2 run that went the whole fourth quarter and got them to their winning margin.
They were able to do this by using their 1-3-1 defense, which forced the Braves into a plethora of turnovers in the game. The use of this strategy made it to where Justin-Siena didn’t have a single scorer in double figures as well.
“We just went away from our man (defense) and wanted to take a look at our 1-3-1 and see if we could kind of speed the game up because we’re struggling to score and they ended up struggling against it,” Vintage head coach Zack Cook said of the defensive strategy that led to his team being able to pull away. “They did miss some chippies and some open shots so we got lucky there. We gotta close out better on their shooters. But yeah, just shift into that 1-3-1 and it kept working so we just stayed with it.”
Early on, it appeared as if the Braves (7-8, 1-1 VVAL) were going to control the whole time. After all, they quickly vaulted out to an 8-2 lead and ended the first period leading 8-4. They also were down by just a point at the half as the Crushers led 12-11.
“I felt like both teams came out over-amped,” Justin-Siena head coach Andy Bettencourt said as to how his team was able to get off to a fast start. “Honestly I think that’s why I think there was like no score for three minutes. We were able to settle down and get the ball inside of Jordan a couple (of) times and get some things going to the rim which was good you know, against their man-to-man defense. Then, I thought also our pressure full court helped out a little bit as well.”
One of the stat oddities from this game is that Justin-Siena outrebounded Vintage 29-21 as well. In this instance, rebounding doesn’t tell the whole story.
Leading the way for Vintage was Grace Geitner. The freshman forward finished with a game-high of 10 points, with 8 rebounds, and a blocked shot. She did the majority of her damage in the second half and third quarter more specifically where she scored 8 points.
“I just got more confident,” Geitner said as to what changed in the third quarter when she took over and made a key difference in the outcome. “I think our team energy was really good coming out of halftime. I think we were all kind of hyped up, (and) ready to go. We got a roll there towards the second quarter, which I think kind of let us bring it into the third and the fourth quarter and it was just a fun game.”
Another key factor for Vintage was the fact that their seniors made some key shots when they had to, which aided in the scoring. Lizzie Qui finished with 8 points, all coming in the second half, and a pair of rebounds. Meanwhile, Rachel Galvin had 6 points in this one, 4 coming after the break while corralling 2 rebounds.
“Oh, they’re really important, especially playing in an emotional game like this,” Cook said of the importance of the seniors in the game. “So I think the younger girls seen them play under control and controlling their emotions. I think that probably helped our younger girls sort of relax and just play basketball.”
Others scoring for the Crushers were Cienna Alvarez (6 points, 6 rebounds) and Ella Pridmore (4 points, 2 rebounds).
Leading the way for Justin-Siena was Jordan Washington. The sophomore center finished the game with 8 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 blocked shots. She made all 4 shots from the free-throw line as well. Washington scored 6 points before halftime to give the hosts a chance to stay in the game.
After that, the scoring was quite sparse. Emery Messenger (3 points), Lauren Keller (2 points, 5 rebounds), and Bella Balmaceda (1 point, 2 rebounds) rounded out the scoring for the Braves.
Both teams will continue VVAL action next Tuesday night at 7 PM. Vintage will play their first home game in nearly a month when they face Petaluma and Justin-Siena will travel to Napa High to face the Grizzlies.
