Santa Rosa takes care of little things, goes on run out of break to beat Napa, claim third in Denny Lewis Invitational
By Kyle Foster, photo courtesy of Eric Thompson (Shamboozled.com)
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There are times when a close game is decided by the simplest of things. After all, keeping it simple is how you win when things get going fast.
In Saturday’s third-place game at the Denny Lewis Invitational, it was the little details that led Santa Rosa past Napa, 70-60, at Messner Gym.
The Panthers (4-2) were able to pull away in the third quarter and get the lead to double figures with an 8-0 run.
“Singular possessions,” Napa High head coach Carson Carattini said as to what the difference was in the game. “I mean a 10 points game is three possessions. So what is it? Is it a turnover there? Is it a missed block out? At the end of the quarter, we tried some things and they got some buckets. So little things are really what makes up the difference in games like that.”
Santa Rosa also won the second and third quarters where they outscored the hosts 22-16 and 23-11 in those periods.
Napa (1-3) was then able to cut into the lead and get it to as close as 6 but could never get over that hump.
During the final minutes of the contest, it looked like the Grizzlies had a slight chance at coming back by playing the foul game to stop the clock.
One of the reasons Napa was able to keep the game so close was senior guard Christian Williams. In the game, he finished with a team-high 25 points and 4 rebounds. Williams also went 6 of 8 at the free-throw line and scored 14 of his points in the first half.
“He’s kind of found his groove in terms of the shots he’s selecting,” Carattini said of Williams who has heated up as of late. “So he’s taking shots he can make, and he’s, and he’s doing the things he’s supposed to do.”
Finishing as the second-highest scorer for the Grizzlies was Jayden Quintana. The senior finished as an all-tournament selection as well as he finished with 10 points and 3 rebounds.
Rounding out the scoring for Napa was Will Flynn (8 points, 9 rebounds, 2 blocked shots), Gael Bazoungissa (8 points, 1 rebound, blocked shot), Eli Mindle (6 points, 2 rebounds), and German Camacho (3 points).
As a result of the game, Napa will take home fourth in the tournament that they host each year. The tournament champion was Half Moon Bay who beat Napa on Friday in the semifinals. They beat Whitney of Rocklin 70-48 to claim the title.
“I think our guys played hard and competed,” Carattini said of the tournament. “We took the matchup that we had each night and focused solely on that. We didn’t look ahead, we didn’t try to think about future scenarios, we just focused on the task at hand, and that’s all I can ask for from my group.”
It was still a good tournament for the Grizzlies as they were able to gain their first win of the season on Thursday night against Delta.
Napa will be back in action next Tuesday at 7 pm when they visit California High in San Ramon.
