Justin-Siena quickly gains upper-hand on way to victory over Napa to stay unbeaten in VVAL
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
When you’re the standard, you know teams are going to start giving it everything they have to try to upset you. This is even more true when the season is winding down.
On Friday night at the Daniel J. Clark Gym, Justin-Siena was able to beat crosstown rival Napa, 69-46, in a Vine Valley Athletic League battle.
Justin-Siena (20-2 overall, 9-0 VVAL) was able to put the game out of reach very quickly. After getting down 6-2 at the start, they were able to go on a 14-0 run that quickly pushed the lead to 10 points at 16-6. They then outscored the Grizzlies 7-5 in the final moments of the frame to lead 23-11 at the end of the first period.
The Braves also went on a 7-0 run at the end of the first half to carry a 39-19 lead into the break.
“I think Napa came prepared and they knocked down some threes,” Justin-Siena head coach and athletic director George Nessman said of overcoming a small deficit early on. “They’re a good shooting team, and that’s not surprising. I think their defense, their defense was sound, until we were able to open them up with some turnovers in the second half. Credit to them, they battled early, and we just have a little more firepower than them right now.”
Finishing with a game-high of 25 points to go along with 4 rebounds, and a blocked shot was Travis Hightower. The senior also made both shots from the line.
Hightower was able to do whatever he wanted out on the court on the way to 25 points, with 4 rebounds, and a blocked shot.
“When Travis gets going, not that many people can really stop him,” Justin-Siena senior Vince Jackson pointed out. “Whenever he gets going, we try to feed him the ball as much as we can.”
In the game, Justin-Siena had very balanced scoring with the exception of Hightower.
Asher Cleary was the next leading scorer with 9 points and 5 rebounds. The senior guard did all of his scoring in the first half as well. Cleary also went 2 of 3 from the free-throw line.
Others scoring for the Braves were Jackson (8 points, 8 rebounds), Ma’el Blunt (8 points, 5 rebounds), Nate Spare (6 points), Dallas Logwood (6 points), Jaden Washington (5 points, 4 rebounds), and Nick Jeremaz (2 points, 1 rebound).
Napa (3-20, 1-8 VVAL) started the game with something to prove as they were quickly able to jump out to a 6-2 lead on the hosts.
“We talked about playing freely and aggressively, and I thought we did that early,” Napa High first-year head coach Carson Carattini said. “We took advantage of them giving us some opportunities early in the shot clock. So we talked about playing at a tempo all the time. We want to start fast every night.”
It also helped that junior guard Jayden Quintana was taking every open shot in the first half. After all, he finished with a team-high of 13 points with all of them coming in the first half.
“He’s been playing with me since March and he’s been able to adopt a lot of what I’m trying to teach him,” Carattini said of Quintana. “He’s very open-minded in terms of trying to grow his game. He just looked to be aggressive. He was being aggressive and they were giving him opportunities.”
Pietro Bonera added 10 points and 3 rebounds. The senior guard scored all points in the second half and made 5 of 6 free throws.
“I try to keep every guy engaged, and am encouraging them to continue to work because they’re ready to play every night,” Caratinitni added. “So when they get their opportunity, they’re just trying to do all the things that we teach and preach every day. He’s finally gotten to a point where I think he feels comfortable and you saw him play free and aggressive and he had some nice plays.”
Others scoring for Napa were Jared Martinez (8 points, 1 rebound), Sebastian Deibert (5 points), Eli Mindle (3 points, 3 rebounds), Elias Willmert (3 points, 2 rebounds), Damon Guerrero (2 points, 7 rebounds), and Finn McGrath (2 points).
Both teams will continue VVAL play next week. But first Justin-Siena will have a non-league test when they visit Atherton to face Sacred Heart Prep on Saturday at 2:30 pm before their league bye on Wednesday and they visit Casa Grande on Wednesday night. Napa will visit American Canyon on Monday night at 7 pm.
In the last meetings, American Canyon beat Napa 54-49 and Justin-Siena beat Casa Grande 73-27.
The other VVAL games on Friday night saw Casa Grande beat American Canyon 76-67 in an upset and Petaluma beat Vintage 56-43. To view the updated VVAL standings, go here.
