Justin-Siena uses strong defense to get early advantage, makes right decisions on offense to beat Vintage
By Kyle Foster
Follow on X: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
Defensive intensity and focus from that start can get you off to a good lead even if the offense takes a bit longer to get going.
On Saturday afternoon at Clark Gym, Justin-Siena did this as they quickly jumped out to a lead to beat Vintage, 77-47, in a Vine Valley Athletic League contest.
The Braves (16-3 overall, 7-0 VVAL) quickly started the game by going on a 10-0 run that immediately got them a comfortable lead. They were able to do this by playing intense defense, which made it hard for Vintage to score anything in the paint.
“It’s always a focus of ours to bring a defensive intensity,” Justin-Siena head coach and athletic director George Nessman said of the defense that got his squad a quick lead. “I thought Vintage attacked us real well for a big stretch in the first half. We had to play better defense in the second half. I thought we did.”
Justin-Siena pushed the lead to 18 points following an 11-4 run to begin the second quarter. This all but assured the Braves were going to win the game away.
It also helped that senior center Jaden Washington was making an impact by not only scoring but dishing the ball off at the right time. The senior center finished with a game-high of 18 points, 2 rebounds, and 2 blocked shots. Washington scored 12 points in the first half and went 5 of 6 from the free-throw line.
He did all of that while being hounded by two defenders throughout the game, which forced him to make the right decision of who to dish the ball off to.
“Well, it’s a question of impact,” Nessman explained. “You can impact by scoring and making plays, or you can impact by creating plays for others. When you commit two players to one, that means three are guarding four and somebody is open, and it was just on Jaden to find them and he did that a number of times.”
Also finishing with a nice game was Nick Jeramaz. The senior guard finished with 11 points and 3 rebounds. In the second half, he got going a bit more as he scored 8 points. Jeramaz also made 2 of 3 shots from the line.
Asa Hightower had one of his nicest offensive games as he scored 9 points and brought down 3 rebounds. The sophomore scored 5 points in the second half and was one of the main beneficiaries of fast breaks, where he got a layup.
Others scoring for the Braves in the game were Charlie Vaziri (8 points, blocked shot), Josh Madayag (8 points), Andrew Grimshaw (6 points, 3 rebounds), Chase Briskovich (5 points), Dallas Logwood (5 points), Xiano Ortego (4 points, 5 rebounds), and Dylan Arnold (3 points, 1 rebound).
Vintage (9-12, 2-5 VVAL) got off to a slow start, which immediately made it hard for them to stay in the game. Despite the sluggish start on offense, they were doing everything needed to keep it tight.
“I don’t know,” Vintage head coach Ben Gongra said of the slow start to the game. “I don’t know. If I knew, I would work as a coach to correct it. We’re still going to try to connect it. But I don’t know the source.
This included double-teaming Washington to try to slow down the Braves on offense. This formula has kept Washington from reaching 20 points in both games this season.
“That’s who we game-planned for,” Gongora explained. “That’s who we watched film about. That’s who we’re scheming if you will. We practiced it. In the first half, I was comfortable with what we were doing. We just weren’t complimenting it on the scoring end.”
In the second quarter, the Crushers offense got going as they were able to get back to within single digits. They did this by driving to the basket and getting to the line, something they failed to do in the first quarter.
“I think our ball movement improved,” Gongora explained. “Guys started warming up or get going a little better.”
They also still had a trio of players finish the game in double figures, which has been a good formula of late.
Leading the way for Vintage was senior forward Miles MacPherson. He finished with a team-high of 17 points and 2 rebounds. He scored 11 points after the break and made all 4 free throws.
Brady Hearn added 15 points and 1 rebound. The senior guard scored 9 points in the second half while going 2 of 5 at the line.
Also finishing in double figures was Jace Lopez. The senior guard scored 11 points off the bench while grabbing 5 rebounds. He scored 9 points in the first half and made his lone free throw.
Rounding out the scoring for the Crushers was Rory Holland (4 points, 2 rebounds).
Both teams will continue league play on Tuesday at 7 pm. Justin-Siena will visit Napa High and Vintage will host Petaluma.
In the last meetings on January 5th, Petaluma beat Vintage 59-40 and Justin-Siena beat Napa 64-46.
