Justin-Siena goes back to fundamentals, gets offense going in second half to beat Freedom, advance to championship of Christmas Classic
By Kyle Foster
Follow on X: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
When the game is tight, cleaning the little things up and doing the fundamentals is crucial to coming out with the win. After all, the fundamentals are what is taught first and oftentimes what coaches refer to at the half when a game isn’t going quite as planned.
On Friday afternoon in the second round of the 2nd annual Christmas Classic at Justin-Siena, this is what the Braves boys’ basketball team did as they beat Freedom of Oakley, 61-43.
Justin-Siena (7-1) was able to win the contest thanks to out-scoring the Falcons (1-10) 37-17. They rotated when Freedom took shots from beyond the arc and came away with more steals on defense in the second half as well.
“First of all, Freedom played great in the first half,” Justin-Siena head coach and athletic director George Nessman explained. “They were defending the heck out of us and made it really hard on us, and that’s a tribute to their team and their staff.”
However, they also returned to the fundamentals to get their offense going. Besides, putting up some back shots in the first half that led to easy Freedom buckets, they also turned the ball over more than normal.
In the first half, Freedom was also the more physical team. It took the Braves a moment to adjust.
“I feel like that’s something that our team was struggling with earlier on in the season, and I feel like we’re growing every game,” Justin-Siena senior center Jaden Washington said of physicality and how it’s been bothering them somewhat this season. “We’re figuring out how to play with physicality. Just taking our time with the ball, not rushing it, not getting sped up by the defense, and that’s what really helped us today.”
In the first quarter, it looked like the game was going to be a blowout. After all, the game was tied at 3 and then Justin-Siena ran off a 10-0 run that gave them a 13-3 lead. In most cases, the game would be a runaway. But from the 1:08 point of the first quarter, Freedom outscored Justin-Siena 19-9 to go into the break all tied at 22.
“I think we dealt with it well,” Nessman said of being able to fight through Freedom’s strong first half. “Basketball is a game of runs generally speaking, and rarely is a game just go back and forth two-point game. Usually, one team gets a lead, and the other team surges, and we’re comfortable playing in that type of game.”
Leading the way for the Braves in the game was Nick Jeremaz. The senior guard finished with a team-high of 21 points and 3 rebounds. He was one of the main reasons Justin-Siena pulled away in the second half, scoring 15 points out of the break while going 2 of 3 at the free-throw line.
“Nick’s an amazing scorer,” Washington said of how they got Jeremaz going in the second half. “I mean, he’s one of the best scores I’ve ever played with. Half of it was our guards making good passes to him. The other half was him getting open off the ball cutting, setting screens moving, so a lot of credit to him.”
Also scoring double figures in the game was Washington. He finished with 15 points, 6 rebounds, and a blocked shot.
Rounding out the scoring for the Braves were Charlie Vaziri (9 points, 5 rebounds), Dallas Logwood (6 points, 3 rebounds), Asa Hightower (5 points, 5 rebounds), Josh Madayag (2 points), and Xiano Ortega (1 point).
Logwood was one of the key players off the bench in the game as he was able to play good defense off the bench. As he’s logged more minutes, he’s gotten better. It took a while since he had to come back from football in the fall as well.
With the win, Justin-Siena will play for the tournament title on Saturday at 6 pm against Santa Cruz. After beating Napa in their opener, they beat California-San Ramon 55-43 to punch their ticket to the championship game.
