Santa Cruz makes key plays down stretch, gets turnovers to beat Justin-Siena, and claim Christmas Classic title
By Kyle Foster
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When just a few points decide games, every possession is crucial. It’s like every decision, whether it’s good or bad is magnified. When this is the case, it suddenly feels like a playoff game.
In the Championship game of the Christmas Classic at Justin-Siena on Saturday night, Santa Cruz made a few more plays as they beat the host Braves, 50-46, in a thriller at Clark Gym.
The Cardinals (9-2) opened the game by grabbing the lead in the first quarter. After Justin-Siena scored the first point of the game, Santa Cruz ran off the next 9 points to take an early 9-1 lead.
After that, the Cardinals would roll onto the win. Instead, Justin-Siena not only fought back over the second quarter before taking a 30-29 lead in the third quarter. The Braves (7-2) also held their biggest lead in the third quarter when they led 34-29.
“Well, the difference was we had that little stretch, we turned it over three or four times in a row (and) went from a five-point lead to a three-point deficit,” Justin-Siena head coach and athletic director George Nessman said as to what the difference was in the game. “Santa Cruz made plays when they when they needed to, and they made one or two more than we did overall. But I thought the effort of our guys was very good and it’s a very encouraging performance overall for us.”
The Braves only trailed by two in the fourth quarter multiple times as well but never could get over that hump to take what would’ve been a game-winning lead. They were forced to play the foul game, where Santa Cruz made every key shot from the line to put the game away.
It also didn’t help that Santa Cruz got to the line a total of 29 times in the game. When a team is shooting that many free throws in a game, it means there are a lot of players in foul trouble. This was also the case for Justin-Siena as some of their key guys had fouls they had to play with to not foul out.
One of the main reasons Justin-Siena was able to come back and take the lead as they started playing with some confidence on the offensive side of the ball. This makes sense as seeing the ball go through the basket is the best thing to give a team some confidence.
“I think a lot of it was we just started playing some confidence,” Nessman explained. “The first half we were playing with some timid behavior, and we didn’t have confidence. We reminded them it’s just a basketball game. If you’re open shooting the ball, it doesn’t matter who’s guarding you. If they’re not in your face and you’re open, it’s the same exact look otherwise, and we started to make a coupe (of) shots, and I think that fed our confidence, and we played better as the game proceeded.”
Speaking of the offense getting going in the second half, that was the case as the Braves were able to get Jaden Washington going after a rough first half. In the game, he finished with a game-high of 26 points with 8 rebounds, and 2 blocked shots. In the first half, he was held to just 4 points before erupting in the second for 22. He scored 11 in each of the final two frames and made 7 of 8 free throws.
“Jaden carried us offensively in the second half,” Nessman who is also the tournament director explained. “He’s capable of doing that against a real high-quality team.”
Rounding out the scoring in the game for Justin-Siena were Asa Hightower (6 points, 6 rebounds), Dallas Logwood (6 points, 3 rebounds), Nick Jeremaz (4 points, 4 rebounds), and Andrew Grimshaw (4 points, 2 rebounds).
With the result on Saturday night, Justin-Siena finished second in their Christmas Classic. They beat Las Lomas on Wednesday night and Freedom on Friday afternoon before the game on Saturday.
“Well, I think the biggest thing is our guys are growing into confidence they can play with any team we play, and a team on our schedule,” Nessman said as to what his team can take from the tournament. “That needs to be their mindset, and I think it will be their mindset as we go forward.”
Justin-Siena will now have five days off to enjoy the holiday before hosting Kelseyville on Thursday at 6:30 pm. They will then visit St. Joseph Notre Dame on December 30th at 3:30 pm before beginning Vine Valley Athletic League play at Vintage on January 3rd.
