Solano pulls away in second quarter to get comfortable lead, has three double-digit scorers to beat Napa Valley
By Kyle Foster
Follow on X: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
Winning in basketball is already hard because games are so tight. What makes it harder is when you’re outnumbered and outmanned. Even with a legendary coach in your corner, there’s only so much they can do.
In Wednesday night’s Bay Valley Conference matchup at Storm Gym, this was what happened when Solano beat Napa Valley, 74-41.
For Napa Valley (9-10, 3-2 BVC) this was going to be an uphill battle from the start. After all, they only had six players available in the game. One of the biggest issues was the fact that they lacked the height needed to be able to keep it close. This was the seventh game this season where they have had only six players available.
“It’s difficult,” Napa Valley College head coach Paul DeBolt pointed out of what it’s like working with just six players in a game. “It’s difficult because going down to from seven to six is difficult because it’s just more minutes. There’s less flexibility defensively, which is really what we’ve been able to do is really kind of slow people’s roll and keep teams under 60, which allows us to be in games and we couldn’t do that with six players tonight.”
The Falcons (14-6 overall, 6-0 BVC) pulled away in the second quarter of the game where they outscored Napa 20-8. This included a pair of 9-0 and 6-0 runs that saw the lead start to get bigger.
“We just missed shots,” DeBolt said of the second quarter. “What tends to happen is we don’t get good shots and we don’t get layups. Every shot is contested and that’s a credit to them.”
Solano also finished the game with a trio of double-digit scorers. Leading the way in the game was sophomore center Ale Ibarra who finished with a game-high of 19 points. She scored 12 points before the break while making all 3 free throws.
After that, Amari Mason added 16 points. She did all of her damage in the third quarter, where she scored 14 points. She also made 1 of 2 shots from the line.
Allyah Hayes finished with 11 points in the game as well to round out the trio. She scored 6 points in the first while splitting a pair of free throws.
Rounding out the scoring for the Falcons were Jade Dickson (9 points), Ella Gervasoni (7 points), Macie Wilcox (5 points), Julia Wright (5 points), and Jhaidyn Reed (2 points).
“I mean, we can’t match up with them,” DeBolt said “So I mean, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to be able to see that, though it is what it is. I’m not sure what we’re supposed to do.”
Coming into the game, Napa had been riding a season-long five-game winning streak. This vaulted their record back to .500.
“We’ve been playing really well,” DeBolt said of the winning streak. “I mean, we’ve been competing. We won a couple real tough road games and we’re okay. We’re going to be alright.”
In the first quarter, Napa Valley was able to take an early lead when they went up 14-13 following a 9-0 run. Before this DeBolt had to burn a pair of timeouts to get his team into the game.
“Just for some reason, it takes us a minute to adjust to a game and it’s frustrating,” DeBolt said of the slow start to get into the game before his team got going. “It seems like I gotta take two timeouts every game just to kind of get us focused and we had some miscommunication also.”
Leading the Storm in the game was Sykes. She finished with a team-high of 13 points with 5 rebounds. She scored 8 points in the first half while going 5 of 8 from the free throw line in the game.
Then there was Giles who also finished with 12 points and 7 rebounds. She scored 8 points in the second half while making 4 of 7 free throws.
Rounding out the scoring for Napa Valley in the game were Alecia Johnson (6 points, 3 rebounds), Aaliyah Gaitan (6 points, 1 rebound), Kamilah Tiongco (3 points, 1 rebound), and Bella Merritt (1 point, 1 rebound).
The Storm will be back in action on Friday at 5:30 pm when they head to Kentfield to face College of Marin.
