Vintage gains control with early run, pulls away in third quarter to beat Casa Grande, move on in VVAL Tournament
By Kyle Foster
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When everyone knows each other so well, it comes down to the little things and execution. Without those two, it’s going to be hard to win.
On Tuesday night at Crusher Gym, the No. 4 seed Vintage boys’ basketball team did this when they beat No. 5 Casa Grande-Petaluma, 59-53, in the first round of the Vine Valley Athletic League postseason tournament.
The Crushers (12-15) took control of the game in the first quarter when they went on a 10-2 run that gave them a 16-10 lead. This also allowed them to play with a lead for most of the game.
Another reason they were able to gain an advantage was the solid zone defense they deployed to force the Gauchos into taking some long shots. They were able to force turnovers as well, which helped them put the game away late.
“So, again, we didn’t know what to expect,” Vintage head coach Ben Gongora said of the zone look they used to gain an edge. “We didn’t know if they were going to come in and counter or make some type of adjustment and give us a totally different look and we stuck with it. We did do a few series of man, just to try to mix it up and see. But our defense has been dialed in right now and we practice a lot.”
However, the player who made the most impact on this one was Connor Gongora. The senior guard finished with a team-high of 19 points and 1 rebound.
“I mean, I’ve just been trying to do what I’ve been doing all season basically and practices and just on my own time – I know that’s what I do,” the younger Gongora said of his night. “Every time I show up to the gym and throughout the year games, it hasn’t been there and all I’ve been trying to do is get it to translate from practice into the game. And that’s what’s been happening in the past couple weeks. So I went out there and first quarter that first half, there wasn’t much, and then the second half it just started to flow and I just want to feed into that and keep going.
Gongora was on fire from the three-point game as he made 5 shots from there in the game. That accounted for half of the Crushers’ makes from deep. He had a great third quarter where he scored 11 points as well before scoring 16 total in the second half.
“Just started off good,” Connor said of the third quarter. “Caught it early, got a shot up, made it, and for me, it just takes one I think to get started and after that first make, just keep riding it get another one teammates were really helping out feed me the ball. They were saying they were faced guarding me and then they would help on the drive, created great passes for me, and got me open looks.”
Also having a nice night was Miles MacPherson. The senior forward finished with 15 points to be the team’s second-highest scorer. He also made three shots from the three-point line in the game. MacPherson also scored 10 points in the second half and brought down 5 rebounds in the game.
“I saw some energy from him,” Connor said of MacPherson. “I saw him talking a lot more than he usually does, which is helpful for me offense and for defense and it’s always great having them out there. They always know about Miles. He’s the best player on the team and everyone’s going to either face-guard him, double him, whatever, put their best defender on him and that helps me when I was getting my shot going. They were pressing me more. I could get to the lane. I had a couple kicks to Miles and he always knocks down the shot. I have confidence in him that he can always be there for me.”
Others scoring for Vintage in the game were Nate Marroquin (9 points, 5 rebounds), Jace Lopez (8 points, 4 rebounds), Brady Hearn (4 points, 4 rebounds), and Rory Holland (4 points, 3 rebounds).
Before the game had tipped, there was a lot of curiosity about what was going to be seen. After all, this was the third meeting between the two teams this season and the second in the last four days. All games were close as well.
“I approached it like what a treat,” coach Gongora said of the close matchups with the same team. You know, these high school kids get to feel what it’s like to be a professional athlete, right NBA teams and a series in a five-game series seven-game series, don’t they play at the at home and then away right away, and then right back home back-to-back? So I said, ‘Hey, guys, what an awesome opportunity that we just played at costs on Saturday and now we get to come home and face Casa again.’ That’s why professional sports specifically the NBA is so amazing because they know what each other is going to do. It’s going to come down to effort and execution.”
Casa Grande (9-18) was able to stay in the game early on by shooting over the zone. In the first half, they made just 4 of them but it was enough to help them go into the break up 30-28.
In the second half, they turned the ball over more while making 5 shots from deep. This was one of the reasons the game changed, especially in the third quarter when the Crushers’ lead swelled to 9.
“We want to first of all take care of the ball because we turned it over 22 times last time we played them,” Casa Grande first-year head coach Nick Guillory said. “So that was priority number one. But against a zone, you got to move the ball and move people. So we just look for openings. It’s no different than our man concepts and we have shooters and they’re instructed if they’re open on a kickout, shooting over a zone, let it fly.”
Leading the way for Casa Grande in the game was Jeffrey Rice. The senior finished with a game-high 21 points. He scored 13 points in the first half and went 5 of 6 from the free-throw line. He also made 4 shots from deep in the game.
The only other scorer in double figures for the Gauchos was Ryan Rice. The junior finished with 11 points. He scored 8 points in the second half and made 4 shots from the three-point line.
Others scoring for the Gauchos were Phillip Liu (6 points), Jake Barlow (6 points), Luke Bell (3 points), Andon Harris (2 points), and Drew Bugbee (2 points).
This also wraps up the first season for Guillory who has got the Gauchos pointed in the right direction.
“I couldn’t be more enthusiastic,” Guillory said as to what he sees for the program going forward. “It’s year one. Irrespective of record, it’s a great group of kids, they play hard. We have a lot of guys returning next year. We beat a lot of good teams to prove that we are capable, and frankly, I think gave a few away that we probably should have had and our record might’ve looked a little better. But the administration the families, everything is top-notch over there. So I’m really excited about the future.”
With the win, Vintage will move on to the semifinals of the league tournament on Thursday at 7 pm. In that game, they’ll face the No. 1 seed Justin-Siena who had the bye on Tuesday night. The winners will play for the league tournament title on Saturday night at Napa High. In the other meetings with Justin-Siena this season, it was a tale of two games. In the opener on January 3rd, Justin-Siena won 50-37. On January 20th, Justin-Siena won 77-47. The thing that is different about the game on Thursday is that the Crushers are playing their best basketball right now, which could make the game interesting.
The other semifinal will feature No. 2 Petaluma hosting No. 3 American Canyon. In the quarterfinal games on Tuesday, Petaluma beat Sonoma Valley 64-50 and American Canyon beat Napa High 56-44.
