Justin-Siena ramps up defensive intensity midway through first quarter to gain double-digit lead on way to Senior Night victory over Petaluma
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
When something clicks and the momentum shifts in a basketball game, you know it.
In Tuesday night’s regular season and Vine Valley Athletic League finale, things clicked in the first half as the Justin-Siena girls’ basketball team beat Petaluma, 42-32, on Senior Night at Daniel J. Clark Gym.
The Braves (12-13 overall, 6-6 VVAL) found themselves trailing 9-7 when they went on a massive 13-0 run that spanned two quarters to make it 20-9 before the Trojans finally scored with 2:21 left in the first half.
“I think our intensity definitely picked up,” Justin-Siena senior guard Mary Heun explained. “Got our coach talking to us and everyone on the court definitely just wanted to ramp it up. So we just took action.”
One of the reasons Justin-Siena was able to pull away was their defensive intensity that forced Petaluma (6-21, 2-10 VVAL) into a bunch of turnovers like shot clock violations and traveling that happened nearly every time down the floor.
In the second quarter, the Braves also held the Trojans to just four points. That meant they led 24-13 at the break.
“We started doing a better job of creating offensive opportunities from our defense,” Justin-Siena head coach Andy Bettencourt said. “We locked down defensively, rarely get turnovers and stops, and get some run outs. Obviously also making shots helps. But yeah, I think we went on a 13-o run or something like that, and that really helped turn around the game.”
However, Petaluma made the game interesting in the third where they outscored Justin-Siena 11-8, which included a 6-0 burst that cut the deficit to just four.
“We have a thing with Petaluma, there’s no doubt about it,” Bettencourt joked. “This actually is the first time we didn’t go to overtime with them in two years. So it’s, it’s a matchup for us. I don’t know if it’s a mental thing for us. But I don’t know if it’s a mental thing for them in terms of just being confident against us. But Petaluma you know, give them credit for a team that was playing its last game of the season, they gave everything they had and were able to fight back and did a really nice job. So it was definitely a very competitive second half.”
In the contest, the Braves had a pair of co-leaders when it came to scoring.
One of those was Heun. The senior in her final home game finished with 13 points, 3 rebounds, and blocked 2 shots. She scored 8 points in the first half and went 5 of 7 at the free-throw line.
“I wanted to put everything on the floor tonight and leave nothing to chance, knowing that it was my last home game,” Heun said of her performance in her final home game after four years on varsity. “Basketball has meant the absolute world to me in the past four years. So being able to get one last opportunity was very important to me.”
Also, having a great game was Jordan Washington. The sophomore center finished with a double-double of 13 points, 13 rebounds, and 2 blocked shots. She also scored 7 points before the break and made 5 of 8 free throws in the game.
“Jordan continues to be just consistently getting better and better,” Bettencourt said of the sophomore. “We just see such a high ceiling for her that I think sometimes we forget how good she is right now because we are constantly on her to get better. She almost wakes up and has a double-double.”
Others scoring for Justin-Siena were Lauren Keller (7 points, 7 rebounds), Megha Jackson (7 points, 2 rebounds), and Hannah Spare (2 points, 2 rebounds).
With the conclusion of tonight’s games, the end-of-season VVAL tournament is now set. Beginning on Thursday night it will be No. 3 Casa Grande vs No. 2 American Canyon at 5:30 PM, followed by No. 4 seed Vintage vs No. 1 seed Sonoma Valley at 7:15 PM. All games will take place at Casa Grande High School in Petaluma. The winners will meet on Saturday night at 5 PM.
In other VVAL games Tuesday night, American Canyon beat Vintage 44-35 and Casa Grande beat Sonoma Valley 34-30.
As for Justin-Siena, they will now have 8 days off before beginning the CIF North Coast Section Divison 4 playoffs that begin on February 15th. This will be the Braves second straight trip to the playoffs, with the only difference being that they will likely have to travel to either Healdsburg or McKinleyville while being either the No. 11 or No. 12 seed as projected by MaxPreps. Either one of those teams would be a rematch as well. On December 10th, Healdsburg beat Justin-Siena 48-31, and then on December 21st McKinleyville beat Justin-Siena 45-33.
This was the end of the season for Petaluma as well. They will now look forward to next winter as the offseason is now here.
Justin-Siena honors five seniors before the game
Before the game started, the school honored its 5 seniors for their contributions over a crazy four years.
“It’s a big accomplishment,” Heun said of winning her final home game. “It’s definitely something my team and I have been working towards and to end our last home game as seniors with a win was a big accomplishment.”
Those honored were Heun, Bella Balmaceda, Emery Messenger, Spare, and Jackson.
“This senior class is a great class that has had to deal with a lot,” Bettencourt said of the seniors on the team. “Their sophomore year was the COVID year and having to do the masked workouts where we only could use our own ball and all that stuff. Some of them didn’t even really get the opportunity to play that much that year because of everything that was going on. But they stuck to it.”
Those seniors all started together and gave the hosts some good energy at the start of the game as well.
“They’re a good group and this meant something to them,” Bettencourt said of the energy that the senior starting five brought. I know that our last two games have been rough and I think they wanted to really turn things around and make sure that we went into the playoffs on a winning note.”
Seven players will be back next winter for Justin-Siena after the graduation of the five seniors.
