Justin-Siena starts fast, has majority of team score in dismantling of Casa Grande
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
When’s the last time you’ve seen one team hold another to single digits in every quarter of a basketball game? It’s not exactly an easy thing to do.
I know it’s certainly been a while. However, this is what the Justin-Siena boys’ basketball team did when they dismantled Casa Grande of Petaluma, 73-27, in a Vine Valley Athletic League matchup at the Daniel J. Clark Gym on Friday night.
The Braves (16-1 overall, 4-0 VVAL) began the game with a blitz of scoring on the Gauchos when they quickly ran out to a 9-0 lead before the visitors scored with 6:15 left in the first quarter. They ended the quarter by outsourcing Casa Grande 15-3 to go up 24-6 at the end of the period.
The second frame saw much of the same as Justin-Siena held Casa Grande (4-13, 0-5 VVAL) to just 7 points while scoring another 30 points to go into the half with a monster 54-13 lead. The Braves also ended the half by making 13 straight shots, which is quite an astounding stat when you think about it.
“Well, sometimes you get off to a good start and it rattles the opponent a little bit,” Justin-Siena head coach and athletic director George Nessman said of the fast start his squad had. “I think Casa got off their game because we were really pressing them. They’ve been fighting hard and hanging in games and we thought they were on the verge of a breakthrough and we just wanted to make sure it wasn’t against us.”
In the game, Justin-Siena was also able to get out on the break a lot as they accumulated a bunch of fast-break points.
“The fast break is one of the best parts of the game,” Justin-Siena senior Nathan Spare explained. “You get highlight plays and dunks and it’s very exciting.”
The other thing Justin-Siena did quite well in this one was sharing the scoring. They had four players finish with double-digit points.
“I think we have a very like a deep bench,” Spare said of the evenly distributed scoring numbers. “All our players could be starters on other teams. All our players are very skilled. So I just think that shows how our practices and our coaching is.”
Leading all of them was Ma’el Blunt. The senior guard finished with a team-high of 13 points, 2 rebounds, and a blocked shot. He made his lone free throw as well while doing the majority of his damage in the first half where he scored 9 points. Blunt scored the majority of his points on layups as well.
“He’s one of the most important leaders on our team, and he’s essential to our success,” Nessman said of Blunt who has been scoring a lot more this season. “We call him a tone-setter and if he sets the tone, it usually turns out good for us.”
After that, Travis Hightower finished with 12 points, 10 rebounds, and 2 blocked shots to finish with a double-double. Hightower scored all of his points prior to the half while making a pair of free throws in the game as well. The senior forward was also able to take advantage of fast-break opportunities where he had a pair of highlight slam dunks.
“Travis impacts the game,” Nessman said of Hightower who finished with a double-double. “That’s the best way to say it. He impacts the game and it’s on both ends of the floor and he really did a good job.”
Off the bench, Jaden Washington scored 11 points and grabbed 2 rebounds. The junior scored 8 points before the half and made 3 of 5 shots from the charity stripe.
Finally, Spare scored 10 points off the bench as well to go along with 8 rebounds also off the bench. The senior scored 8 points in the second half of the game as well.
“A lot of assists. I’ve got to credit my teammates to that and just got on the boards,” Spare said of his night. “Something that I love to do is get rebounds. It’s my favorite part of basketball so I just think that’s part of it.”
Asher Cleary got his three-point shot going as he finished with 9 points on a trio of buckets from beyond the arc. All of the points came in the first quarter of the game.
“Asher can spread the defense out,” Nessman said of the impact Cleary makes when he’s shooting the ball well. “When you spread it out, that gives us driving lanes, and we’re dangerous when we’re off the bounce going forward. So Asher is a really important player to our system.”
In all, the Braves had 11 of 13 players score a bucket in the game. Rounding out the scoring for Justin-Siena was Vince Jackson (7 points, 1 rebound), Nick Jeremaz (3 points), Chase Briskovich (2 points, 2 rebounds), DJ Ryan (2 points, 1 rebound), Andrew Grimshaw (2 points, 1 rebound), and Dallas Logwood (2 points).
Both teams will have non-league games before returning to league play next week. Casa Grande will play at Washington-San Francisco on Monday at 2 PM before visiting Sonoma Valley next Friday at 7 PM. As for Justin-Siena, they’ll head to Berkeley High School to face Santa Cruz in the MLK Classic on Saturday at 3:30 before hosting Sonoma Valley on Wednesday night at 7 PM.
In other VVAL action on Friday night, American Canyon beat Sonoma Valley 78-40 and Petaluma beat Napa 76-33.
