Napa Valley uses monster first quarter run fueled by intense defense to beat Diablo Valley in opening round of Storm Surge, end losing streak
By Kyle Foster
Twitter/X: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
A good defensive game can cure all ailments and get you back on track.
On Thursday night in the 4th annual Storm Surge Tournament following a bit of rain during the day, the Napa Valley College women’s basketball team used a good defensive effort to beat Diablo Valley-Pleasant Hill, 72-52, in a game played at Storm Gym.
Napa Valley (3-6) took control of the game in the first quarter when they played arguably the best they had all season. In that period, they went on an amazing 21-0 run that saw them gain a 25-5 lead before they ended the period up 27-8.
During the period, the Storm played extremely well on defense. This was due in large part to their half-court trap, which forced a bunch of turnovers and hard shots, leading to easier shots on the other end of the floor.
“Zack (Cook) coaches that, that trap, and it really is a good defense, and it does give us some transition opportunities, and we hadn’t had those the last four or five games,” Napa Valley College head coach Paul DeBolt said of the defense in the game. “We really hadn’t had too many transition baskets. So we determined going into the second half against Mission (College-Santa Clara) last Saturday, just to speed things up a little bit.”
Napa Valley also began the second quarter on a 9-0 run to push the lead to 36-8 and all but take control of the contest.
“I think really, our main emphasis was just playing together and playing fast and running a lot in transition,” NVC sophomore guard Rose Jamison said of the defense they played in the game. “I think we definitely executed that tonight.”
Another reason why the Storm was able to win the game was the amazing performance by Jamison. She finished the game with a career-high 37 points and 16 rebounds for a double-double performance.
“I mean, Rose is a great all-around player,” DeBolt said of Jamison and what she can do on the floor. “She’s just a very high basketball IQ, scores at all three levels, smart defender, underrated defender, superb rebounder. She’s somebody you want on your basketball team.”
Jamison also scored 21 points in the first half of the game and made a pair of shots from three-point land. Jamison also scored 16 points in the first quarter. In the game, she converted 9 of 12 shots from the stripe as well.
“I was just finding my open spots, getting what I could, shooting when I was open, finding my teammates when I could, just trying to play all around,” Jamison said of her amazing night.
Finishing as the second-highest scorer for Napa Valley was Arianna Aguilar. The freshman guard scored 13 points. Aguilar made two shots from deep and was 1 of 2 at the line in the game. She also scored 7 points in the first half.
Rounding out the trio of double-digit scorers was Marticia Pollard. She finished with 10 points, 7 rebounds, and a blocked shot in the game. The freshman forward scored 7 points in the first half.
Others scoring for the Storm in the contest were Jazmine Fontilla (6 points, 7 rebounds), Kamiliah Tiongco (4 points, 9 rebounds), and Helena White (2 points, 7 rebounds).
Diablo Valley (2-7) was able to come back in the game following a rough first quarter. They also cut the lead to 12 points at one point, which is where things started to get a bit interesting. This is true because no lead is truly ever safe.
“At this level, anything can happen,” DeBolt explained. I mean, heck, I’ve lost 27-point leads at this level. I’ve coached enough games to do that, and I’m never comfortable until it’s zero (on the clock). I credit them. They made some adjustments. They got some layups, they made some threes, and they were playing a little loose, and we just, we needed to bear down and get better shots, and we did. I was proud of our team for just persevering through that part of the game when we made they cut it to 12, and then it was back up to 20 or 19 within a minute and a half or so.”
With the win, Napa Valley snaps a five-game losing streak and will play for no less than third place in the tournament over the weekend.
“I wish we could have done it two or three games ago,” DeBolt pointed out. “It really gets to a place where you’re just waiting for bad things to happen. So now, I mean, we get to, we’re in the winner’s bracket. We get to play a couple of good teams the rest of the way and hopefully, we can just continue playing well.”
The Storm will continue the Storm Surge tournament on Friday when they face Foothill-Los Altos Hills at 6 pm.
The early part of the season also allows players to get more comfortable with the scheme. It also helps that they seem to get better with each day as a team.
“So I think what we’ve learned as coaches is it’s just taking time for them to kind of just sort of settle in and understand what it is that would that we want them to do,” DeBolt said of what he’s learned about his team so far. “We also put in a couple new offenses that complement each other, and sometimes they don’t do the things in the offense that that they’re that the offense is suited for. So they don’t know. So that is starting to change. Now where if we run this offense a we’re trying to get this kind of a shot, and we’re not taking that kind of a shot, we’re rushing shots, or we’re doing something else. So they’re starting to kind of understand what, what we want them to do.”
