Mendocino shoots well from three-point line, goes on big run in first half to beat Napa Valley on Sophomore Night
By Kyle Foster
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
When facing a team that loves to shoot the three-ball, it can be hard to stop because you’re forced to play man-on-man. It makes sense since playing a zone would be counterproductive when facing a team that can shoot.
On Friday night at Storm Gym, Mendocino of Ukiah shot the three-pointer at will to beat Napa Valley College, 93-86 in a Bay Valley Conference game that was also Sophomore Night for the hosts.
The Eagles (7-18 overall, 4-9 BVC) were doing what they do best, or what is otherwise known as their bread and butter of shooting the rock from three-point range. In the game, they made 14 of 26 shots from beyond the arc.
“Everybody that steps on the floor feels like the next one they shoot is going in,” Napa Valley College head coach Steve Ball said of stopping the three-pointers that Mendocino shoots at will. “We understood that we heard that in the scouting report and we heard that in the walkthrough and all the stuff we do to prepare for those. But everybody’s got a game plan until you get punched in the mouth.”
Mendocino also made 10 shots from range before that break, which helped get them a 50-39 lead at the break. They also were able to go on a massive 13-0 run to go up 36-26 in the first half as well.
“There was just a couple consecutive possessions where we didn’t quite complete a pass or a finish,” Ball said of the run that the Eagles went on to gain a double-digit lead in the first half. “I thought we didn’t play poorly. They just hit three straight threes or two straight threes and an and-one I believe.”
Before they went on that run, Napa Valley (7-19, 2-12 BVC) was hanging around. After finding themselves down 9-5 early, the Storm went on a 7-0 burst to get a 12-9 lead with 14 minutes left in the first half.
“I think we picked up our defensive intensity a little bit, we rebounded a little bit better, we rotated a little bit better,” Ball explained of the early first-half run that included dunks on back-to-back possessions. “It’s just a game of inches. If you are one inch over and you get a deflection on a steel and everybody’s excited. You’re one inch further away and the ball gets straight through when you give up an easy layup. It’s just that much and our guys just ramped it up a little bit. We got a couple of steals, we got a couple of turnovers.”
Napa Valley also made it a game at the end where they reeled off 9 straight points when trailing 80-70, which made it a one-point game, which would the closest they would get after losing the lead.
Another reason that the Storm was in it till the end was the fact that they did a great job of spreading the wealth. They had five players score double-digit points in the contest, which is a typical occurrence.
Leading all of them was Chris Thompsom. The sophomore guard finished with a team-high of 22 points while bringing in 3 rebounds. Thompson exploded in the second half where he scored 13 points while also making 6 shots from three-point land in the game.
“I mean, he’s one of the best shooters I’ve ever coached,” Ball pointed out. “He’s one of the top 15 shooters in the state of California as far as makes go. Everybody knows that and he doesn’t have a whole lot of space but he gets that thing up there and then he’s got, to me, honestly, he’s got a beautiful mid-range pull-up. So when you fly at his three-pointer and he goes one bounce pull up in that little soft underbelly of the defense that’s just as effective.”
Finishing as the team’s second-highest scorer was Albert Dennis. The sophomore guard finished with a double-double of 18 points and 14 rebounds. He scored 10 points in the second half and made both free throws.
Antione Thaxton added 14 points in the contest and brought in 4 rebounds. The freshman forward scored 9 points before the break and made 4 of 6 free throws.
Cameron Joseph finished with 12 points and brought in 5 rebounds. The sophomore forward made a pair of three-pointers and scored 7 points in the first half.
Also scoring 12 points was Raekwon Bell who also had 3 rebounds. The freshman from American Canyon scored 6 points in each half as well.
Others scoring for Napa Valley were Ethan Williams (6 points, 1 rebound) and Clay Coyle (2 points, 1 rebound).
With the home slate now over, the Storm will end the season with a pair of road contests next week. On Wednesday, they’ll travel to Oakland to face Merritt before heading to Marysville on Friday to face Yuba. Both games start at 5:30 PM.
Napa Valley honors hard-working sophomores
Before the tip, the Storm honored their five sophomores playing in their final home game at NVC.
Those sophomores honored were Joseph, Doente Jenkins, Thompson, Dennis, and Coyle. This group has been through COVID times as well, where they had to deal with games being postponed due to the pandemic while also having their first season at NVC be online only with no athletic competition.
“They’ve been a very resilient group,” Ball said of the sophomore class. “A couple of them didn’t get to play their first year out of high school. Most of them didn’t get to play their first year out of high school because of COVID. Last season, we had a what you’d call a severe pause, where we had two weeks where we just had to move those games to the end of the season. One game we were getting ready to go to Los Medanos with five guys and then somebody else tested positive and they were all willing to do it.”
Each player was honored with their game-worn home jersey as well as a picture from their time with the Storm.
In a classy gesture by both sides, Jenkins started the game and was able to tip the ball out of bounds. He was having an amazing season prior to tearing his Achilles against Solano on December 21st.
“It was great he was able to get back out there again,” Ball added. “He knows that we love him, we expressed that, and we miss him tremendously. We had the best preseason that I’ve had in a number of years when he was on the floor, and to lose him lost a lot of momentum and we haven’t been the same team since and so I think the guys all know that and the guys appreciate that.”
Napa Valley will return 9 players when the season begins next year. A lot of those returners have played a lot of minutes this season as well.
