Justin-Siena plays lockdown defense in second half, gets offense going to beat Monte Vista in Christmas Classic opener
By Kyle Foster
Follow on X: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
Most of the time winning close games comes down to the fine details. But you’ve got to have a bit of luck in those nail-biters as well.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Justin-Siena girls basketball team was better over the last few minutes as they beat Monte Vista-Danville, 40-38, to kick off the 2nd annual Justin-Siena Christmas Classic at the Dan Clark Gym.
With just 2:37 left to play the game was knotted up at 37. Over that time, Justin-Siena (7-1) outscored the Mustangs 3-1. However, the game also got very close to going to overtime when the Braves tried to give one of their fouls and ended up fouling on the three-point shot, to send Monte Vista to the line for three shots. After making the first, the second shot was missed and the intentional miss was corralled by Jordan Washington to seal the victory for Justin-Siena.
“We definitely didn’t want to foul a three-point shooter,” Justin-Siena head coach Andy Bettencourt explained. “Yes, we were trying to take a foul. But again, it’s completely a coaching mistake on my part in trying to do something that we haven’t worked on enough in practice. So I own that mistake. I’ve got to be better at preparing our team for those moments because it’s the right play, but we have to be better prepared.”
However, the Mustangs took control of the game in the second quarter when they jumped out to a 24-19 lead after outsourcing the Braves 13-5 during that frame.
“I think they really threw us off when they went to their zone,” Bettencourt pointed out. “Offensively, I thought it made us really tentative. That was one thing we talked about a lot at halftime was that we seemed to be really indecisive on almost every catch. So we told the girls ‘Look, we’ve got to let it fly in the second half.’ We had about the same amount of points, I think in each half. But I thought that there was definitely a little more assertiveness in the second half, which was good.”
In the second half, the one thing that changed for Justin-Siena was their defensive intensity. After all, they held Monte Vista (3-4) to just 14 points over the final two frames of play.
“We decided to like talk more,” Washington said as to what changed defensively in the second half. “Because we knew that communication is key and that if we like communicated, we’d be able to guard all their best players.”
This is also a total 180 from what happened in this tournament last year against Monte Vista as well. In the Christmas Classic last season, Monte Vista won 58-31 over Justin-Siena.
“It feels good,” Bettencourt said of beating Monte Vista 365 days after losing to them. “It definitely feels good. Obviously both teams graduated a bunch of kids, so it’s different teams. But what’s really important is that that’s a good team, and they’re going to win a lot of games. It gives us great experience as we go forward heading against some good teams.”
Maybe another reason the Braves came away with the victory was the fact they got their offense going in the second half as well. After all, Washington finished with a double-double team team-leading 16 points, 10 rebounds, and 3 blocked shots in the contest.
It helped that the junior center scored 9 of those points out of the break while converting on 4 of 6 free throws in the game.
“Coach Andy yelled at me,” Washington laughed when asked how her game changed in the second half. “He told me that I need to get out of my head because in the beginning of the game, I missed a lot of my shots. They were all going short, and he yelled at me to get out of my head and also all my free throws to bend my knees and to help, and that kind of just like helped me turn it on and helped me.”
Also having a nice game for Justin-Siena was Lauren Keller. She finished the game with 10 points and 9 rebounds. The sophomore guard scored 7 of those points in the second half while making 3 of 6 free throws.
“Lauren’s really good,” Washington explained. “She has really good leadership on the court, and even off the court too. She also is always looking to pass to if she like doesn’t have a lane or anything, and that’s really helpful for us. She’s also super aggressive, so people can’t just sag off of her and let her shoot because she can shoot. So she’s super helpful.”
Rounding out the scoring for the Braves in the game were Naveena Jackson (6 points, 5 rebounds), Dylan Zapoolski (6 points on two three-pointers, 2 rebounds), and Jesilyn Beaulac (2 points, 2 rebounds).
Justin-Siena will be back in action on Thursday at 4:30 pm in their second game of the weekend tournament when they host St. Patrick-St. Vincent of Vallejo.
