Napa Valley tightens up defense in second half, evens out scoring to beat Solano and pick up first win of season
By Kyle Foster, photo courtesy of John Encinas (Insanessmedia.com)
Follow on X: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
When it’s been a long year, the first win is an almost indescribable feeling. To finally break through after months of games and having chances slip through sucks. When a team does get that first win, it could be a sign of things to come.
On Wednesday night at Storm Gym, this is what happened as the Napa Valley College men’s basketball team secured their first win, 76-64, over Solano in a Bay Valley Conference contest.
The Storm (1-17 overall, 1-5 BVC) were able to seal the game thanks to a solid second half where they outscored the Falcons (4-15, 1-5 BVC) to just 27 points in the second half. It’s pretty good considering the number of second-chance opportunities they had as well.
“I think it was a combination of things,” Napa Valley College freshman forward Nate Broome said of what clicked in the second half to put the game away. It’s one of the games where we started to hit shots later in the second half. You saw all the three-pointers we started to make. I think the only thing that we did wrong was allowing like, too many rebounds, really too many offensive rebounds from the other team.”
One of the main reasons they were able to go into the break with a slim 39-37 lead was the fact that they were able to have an answer every time Solano got a run going.
However, they also had to battle from a seven-point deficit in the second half as well. When they overcame this, it became evident that the win was going to happen.
“It’s made shots and it’s heart,” Broome said as to what the difference was for them to overcome the deficit. “Because once you have a close game and you experience what it’s like to lose like you never want that to happen again and it’s already happened to us twice. So I think now like you just forget about getting being tired. Forget about your missed shots and just do what you have to do to just play to the buzzer and then you can rest after.”
The win has been a long time coming for Napa Valley. However, they had been knocking on the door of this for the past few weeks. Now that that monkey is off their back, it will allow the Storm to play a little bit more freely as well.
“Over the past couple weeks now, we’ve tightened out screws defensively,” Napa Valley College head coach Steve Ball said as to what’s led to the victory. “We’ve noticed that we’re not scoring a whole bunch of points. So instead of trying to outscore teams, we’re trying to hold teams to less points than fewer points than we score. So we’ve really defensively worked on some things and just simplify things offensively. So we’re not thinking so much just being able to make basketball plays.”
Leading Napa Valley in the game was Chris Farrington, who has battled back from a pair of injury-riddled seasons and finished with a team-high of 16 points and 9 rebounds in the game. He scored 9 points in the first half while making 4 of 9 free throws in the game.
“He’s our tone-setter,” Ball said of Farrington’s impact. “He’s our tempo setter. For an analogy, we call him the head of the snake. Where he goes, we’re gonna follow. So he’s got to play like that. He’s got to play like a sophomore.”
Besides Farrington, the Storm had three other scorers in double-digits to help spread out the scoring.
One of those was Broome. The freshman finished with 13 points and 7 rebounds. In the second half, he was crucial as he scored 8 points. He also made 3 of 4 free throws in the game as well.
“(At) halftime, I saw how close the game was and I felt like somebody had to kind of be the guy with the rebounding,” Broome explained of his key second half. “I felt like we were missing out on a lot of rebounds and I felt like I was gonna let myself down if I went home tonight and we lost and I wasn’t rebounding the ball. So at halftime, I decided to just try to be a dog.”
Raekwon Bell also scored 12 points and brought in 9 rebounds. The sophomore guard scored 7 points in the first half while making both free throws. He also made his lone shot from beyond the arc in the game as well.
Lastly, Oliver Aandahl scored 11 points with 2 rebounds in the game. The freshman guard did all of his scoring in the second half where he made a pair of three-pointers and all 3 free throws.
Rounding out the scoring for the Storm were Jalen Moore (9 points, 8 rebounds), Jerard Jackson (9 points, 3 rebounds), and Jamari Taylor (6 points, 1 rebound).
Solano was led in the game by Justiz Wilson who finished with a game-high of 26 points. He exploded for 18 points in the second half while making 6 of 7 free throws in the game and 4 three-pointers.
Other scoring for Solano were Abraham Bennett (15 points), Matthew Elliott (9 points), Jacques Jones (8 points), Jeremiah Cardwell (4 points), and Ray Holt (2 points).
Napa Valley will continue conference play on Friday night at 7:30 pm when they travel to Kentfield to face College of Marin.
