San Rafael uses prolific scorers, strong defense in third quarter to pull away and beat Vintage
By Kyle Foster
Twitter/X: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
A test early in the season will show you where you’re at and how much further you have to go. After all, it is a measuring stick game.
On Saturday afternoon at the Crusher Gym, the youthful Vintage boys basketball team found out how much more work they needed to do when San Rafael beat them, 64-33, in the first home game of the season.
The Bulldogs (4-0) pulled away late in the first half when they were finally able to go up by double-digits.
But San Rafael put the game far out of reach when they burst off a 17-0 run to move the score to 51-18 with just 1:37 left in the third quarter. During that time, they were forcing numerous turnovers that led to easy layups on the other side of the floor.
“They turned up the pressure,” Vintage head coach Ben Gongora explained. “They turned up the heat and we didn’t counter it. We showed our youth.”
In the game, the Bulldogs were led by a pair of scorers who each had 18 points and were hard to guard.
Leading in the game was Giovanni Brovelli. He used his left shooting stroke to knock down plenty of shots throughout the game.
Luke Shapiro finished the game with 17 points in the effort. He was able to get most of his points in the paint and off of layups by being the main beneficiary of the transition offense the Bulldogs had in the game.
“That’s a pretty dynamic duo,” Gongora pointed out of the challenge it posed for his squad. “They are a vastly different team without those two guys. Those guys are some of the better basketball players in the North Bay.”
Also finishing in double figures in the game for San Rafael was Asher Urban who had 13 points and Will Healy who pitched in 10 points.
As for Vintage (0-2), they were led by junior forward Adar Yildiz. In the contest, he finished with a team-high of 10 points while bringing in 8 rebounds. Yildiz also scored 5 points in each half while converting 4 of 5 free throws.
This is after coming back from a season-ending injury last season.
“Adar always plays hard,” Gongora said. “I love coaching Adar. I am so grateful I’m able to be his coach. I’m sorry he suffered a significant injury last year at the hands of a knucklehead. His own teammate did it to him. But Adar is relentless. Adar, I refer to him kind of like the oxymoron, silent thunder. He’s not the most vocal, but man, does he have a fire in his belly, and he’s just relentless.”
Scoring the second-highest amount of points for the Crushers was Grayson Frye who finished the game with 9 points and 2 rebounds.
Others scoring for Vintage in the game were Dominic Oram (6 points, 4 rebounds), Jonah Harris (4 points, 1 rebound), Anthony Wilmert (2 points, 4 rebounds), and Evan Rosette (2 points, 4 rebounds).
The two teams will take a few days off and then meet again on Thursday in the opening round of the Novato tournament. This is also a good test for Vintage as it shows what type of intensity is needed at the varsity level.
“This was a really good game for us to play this early in the season, that’s the best San Rafael team I’ve seen in at least a decade,” Gongora said. “They got a new coach. He’s bringing a lot of energy, and he has this team playing really, really well right now.”
