After slow start on offense, intense defense leads to massive first quarter run to lead Justin-Siena past Casa Grande
By Kyle Foster
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It’s important to keep playing when shots aren’t falling because a run is coming at some point. After all, basketball is a numbers game and they tend to even out eventually.
On Saturday night at Clark Gym, this happened for the Justin-Siena girls’ basketball team as they rolled past Casa Grande-Petaluma, 58-26, in a Vine Valley Athletic League contest.
The game changed about midway through the first quarter when the Braves (20-3 overall, 9-0 VVAL) went on a massive 13-0 run to immediately take the game over.
However, for the first few minutes of the game, Justin-Siena was playing good defense without shots falling on the other end.
“I think it was a slow start in terms of making shots,” Justin-Siena head coach Andy Bettencourt explained of the slow start offensively. “But we actually liked how we were playing. We thought we were getting good shots. They just weren’t going in. We got a couple of free throws that didn’t go in. So we constantly talk as a team about sticking to the process, and the more good possessions we can put together, the better things will go, and then things started clicking. I thought we did a really nice job of attacking, and even when we missed those shots, I thought that was really good offensive rebounding.”
The Braves used ball pressure defense to force the Gauchos (10-14, 4-6 VVAL) into turning the ball over as well.
“We came out and our goal was to put pressure on the basketball,” Bettencourt said of the defensive game plan at the start. “I thought we did a good job of that and the girls just did a really nice job of forcing contested shots. I thought at the rim and outside. Our goal is to force contested shots and get and then go get the rebounds and the girls did a really nice job of executing that and we were able to get stops which then allowed our offense time to get going.”
One of the reasons the Braves were able to get the lead in the first quarter was the fact that Dylan Zapolski got going in that frame. She scored all 10 of her first-half points in that frame on the way to scoring a team-high 16 points.
Zapolski got the majority of her points from the three-point line as she made 4 shots from there in the game.
“Dylan gets better every single game,” Bettencourt said of the sophomore guard who led his team in scoring. “There’s things that she’s doing at this point in the season that she wasn’t doing at the beginning of the season. She has been a good shooter throughout the season. We know that our girls do a great job of looking for her and finding her. But I thought really, she’d had a couple of nice drives tonight, which was good. When she’s open and she’s in rhythm, it’s pretty good.”
Also having a good night was Jordan Washington. She finished with yet another double-double of 13 points and 10 rebounds. The junior center scored 8 points in the first quarter and missed her lone free throw in the game.
“Jordan’s effort tonight was incredible,” Bettencourt said of Washington’s game. “That’s something that we’ve pushed her hard on is consistently playing to that high effort level, which is not easy and she does a really good job of that. She keeps getting better at it and tonight her motor was awesome. It felt like she was getting every rebound out there.”
Even with all the impact she makes offensively, she is also a force on defense. In the game, she finished with a whopping 5 blocked shots as well. She was very much a rim protector in the game.
“She’s great at the rim,” Bettencourt pointed out. “Usually, I’m not a big fan of the blocked shot. But we have to allow her to do it because she does it really well. She goes straight up, she times people, and it’s a weapon for us. Honestly, because even when we get beat, we know we have that last line of defense, and that’s a really nice luxury to have.”
Rounding out the trio of double-digit scorers was Lauren Keller. She finished with 11 points and 5 rebounds in the game. The sophomore guard scored 6 points in the first half and went 5 of 5 at the line as well.
Others scoring for Justin-Siena in the game were Naveena Jackson (8 points, 9 rebounds, blocked shot), Nadia Sousa (4 points, 2 rebounds), Madyson Carson (2 points, 5 rebounds), Sophia Dominici (2 points, 1 rebound), and Paige Helms (2 points).
With the win, the Braves once again got one step closer to the regular season league title. They can also clinch their first VVAL title on Tuesday at 5:30 pm with a win when they host Sonoma Valley.
In other VVAL action on Saturday, American Canyon beat Sonoma Valley 53-43 to create a 2-game margin between Justin-Siena and Sonoma. You can view the standings here.
