Key third quarter run to gain separation, monster games from Jeramaz and Washington lead Justin-Siena past Ygnacio Valley and to CIF North Coast Section Division 4 championship
By Kyle Foster, photo courtesy of Eric Thompson (Shamboozled.com)
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At the end of the March Madness NCAA tournament, CBS always plays a montage to the song One Shining Moment that ends with the winning team being shown celebrating. It’s time to cue a new one for the newest champions.
On Saturday night at Napa High’s Messner Gym, this is what the No. 1 seed Justin-Siena boys basketball team finally did as they beat Ygnacio Valley-Concord, 76-69, in the CIF North Coast Section Division 4 championship game.
With the win, Justin-Siena won their first section title since 1974. That was four years after the school opened in 1966.
On top of all that, Nick Jeramaz and Jaden Washington have been working for three years on this. After all, they have been on the varsity since they were sophomores.
“Man, this is a special group,” Washington said of finally breaking through after losing in the section semifinals as a sophomore and in the title game last season. “It means the world. This was our goal in the beginning, and we just have the ultimate belief in ourselves. We put in the work and it paid off.”
Justin-Siena (26-3) was able to gain a bit of separation in the third quarter, where they pushed the lead to 45-36. They were able to do this thanks to a 7-2 run.
They were able to keep the Wolves (24-8) at bay by always having an answer for them as well.
However, they were able to limit Ygnacio Valley’s top threat Antonio Kellogg Jr to 17 points. He came into the game averaging 18.2 points a game.
“Well, we talked about the whole game in practice yesterday about having a wall behind Kellogg, and we executed that,” Jeramaz said of the defensive game plan to slow down the Wolves’ top weapon. “We had good help defense today.”
On top of that, they had a good game plan to take Evan McKnight out of it as well. He finished with just 8 points despite being the tallest player on the floor.
“He’s a giant,” Washington explained of guarding McKnight. “There’s not much you can do. Just gotta sit behind him and let him post you up. He’s tall and he likes to dunk. So just keeping him away from the rim where he’s able to dunk is always key.”
Coming in, these teams knew each other. After all, it had been just a little over a year since they had met in the section semifinals last season.
“That’s why we had such an emphasis on having a wall behind them because they were driving on us,” Jeramaz explained. “They have some different kids. But Kellogg was there last year too. That was just our emphasis after this.”
It also helped that Jeramaz had a monster night. After all, he finished with a game-high 33 points with 6 rebounds. He scored 19 points in the second half and made 9 of 10 free throws in the game. Jeramaz also made 5 shots from the three-point line in the game as well.
“I wasn’t even thinking,” Jeramaz said of how his huge night happened. “I was just trying to keep my team in it and I guess 33 points in just the outcome.”
Jeramaz was also the main beneficiary of the trapping defense that the Wolves play. This risk that they took left him wide open multiple times.
“Nick and I talked before the game, they trap a lot,” Justin-Siena head coach George Nessman said. “So you’re going to be left open and in the first half, they left him open. Then in the second half, they decided to get away from trapping, and they basically faceguard him all over the floor. But that allows Nick to make basket cuts and rub off screens, which he did.”
Also having a huge night for Justin-Siena was Washington. He scored 27 points and grabbed 4 rebounds in the game. Washington was unstoppable in the post as that’s where he scored 18 points. He also made one shot from the three-point line and made all 5 free throws.
Washington also scored 14 points in the first half for the night.
Others scoring for the Braves in the game were Dylan Arnold (6 points, 1 rebound), Asa Hightower (4 points, 3 rebounds, 1 blocked shot), Dallas Logwood (4 points, 1 rebound), and Charlie Vaziri (2 points).
Ygnacio Valley was able to keep this game interesting throughout. In the third quarter, they retook the lead with a 16-4 run to go up 52-50.
Leading the way for them in the game was Loyal Morris. He finished with a team-high 21 points.
Others scoring for the Wolves were Todd Tatom Jr. (9 points), Zaire King (6 points), and Terrance Murphy Jr. (5 points).
Now both teams will wait and see where they fall in the CIF State tournament that begins next week. Those brackets should be released sometime on Sunday afternoon here. They will play on Tuesday, which is all that is known at this point.
