Vintage edges El Capitan thanks to strong fourth quarter, even scoring to play for consolation title in Denny Lewis Invitational
By Kyle Foster
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There are times when a tight game can come down to one thing – who plays better at the end? After all, this is the time when you may or may not have your legs underneath you in these early-season games.
On the second day of the 48th annual Denny Lewis Invitational at Napa’s Messner Gym on Friday afternoon, this is what the Vintage boys basketball team did as they edged El Capitan of Merced, 51-44.
As the contest headed to the fourth quarter, the game was all knotted up at 34. In the final 8 minutes, Vintage (2-2) outscored the Gauchos 17-10.
“We bent but we didn’t break,” Vintage head coach Ben Gongora said. “I thought we lost our composure a little bit and we were able to gather our composure and reset and pull it out at the end for the W.”
Before this, each team held slim leads throughout the game. The Crushers gained their edge by going to a mix of a zone and man-to-man defense, which made it tough for El Capitan (2-2) to make any shots other than a layup.
“It’s kind of a matchup man (defense), and we’ll trap, which there’s no surprise,” Gongora explained of the defense the Crushers played to slow down El Capitan. “People know when they face Vintage, you’re going to face a trap or some sort of defensive scheme. But our energy increased our intensity increased. I think the guys were a little frustrated, thinking that we should have had more control to the game and should have had a bigger lead, which I liked.”
The defensive change also limited the number of shots that went in from beyond the arc. In the first quarter, El Capitan started the game hot from three-point land. They also went on a 7-0 run to end the quarter that didn’t let the Crushers seize control of the game then.
The other thing that made it to where Vintage was able to get the win was their balanced offensive attack. In the game, they had three scorers with double-digit points totals.
“The difference with this team is it’s much more evenly distributed,” Gongora said of the even scoring numbers in the game. “I believe we had six guys score, no one scored less than five points. We had three or four guys and double figures.”
Leading them was Miles MacPherson who had a double-double of 11 points and 11 rebounds. MacPherson scored 7 of those points in the second half. Also scoring 11 points in the game was Brady Hearn. Hearn did all of his scoring after the break while also converting on 5 of 6 shots from the free-throw line.
Nate Marroquin pitched in 10 points with 8 rebounds. He also did most of his damage out of the break when he scored 7 points. The senior made 2 of 4 foul shots as well.
Rounding out the scoring for Vintage was Luke Haeuser (8 points, 13 rebounds, Jace Lopez (6 points, 1 rebound), and Connor Gongora (5 points, 4 rebounds).
With the win, the Crushers will play for the consolation title in the Denny Lewis Invitational at 3:30 pm on Saturday when they face Kimball-Tracy.
“I’m so honored to be here. I thought this tournament was long overdue to have it the Denny Lewis Invitational,” Gongora said of the importance of the tournament’s name changing to honor the legendary Denny Lewis. “Denny Lewis was a very, very important figure in my development as a person, when I was younger having played for him, and then at the age of 19 when he hired me to be his JV coach. So grateful he gave me that opportunity, and I am just so appreciative of the impact he’s had on my life, and to be able to be a coach here and participate in this tournament is very touching. It means a lot to me.”
