Justin-Siena uses strong defense in second quarter to get comfortable lead, hold on late to beat Napa High in VVAL opener
By Kyle Foster
Twitter/X: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
You can always win with strong defense. After all, defense travels. In this case, it traveled just a few miles.
In Friday night’s Vine Valley Athletic League opener, Justin-Siena used a key quarter of strong defense to grab ahold of the game and beat Napa, 62-55, in a game played at Messner Gym.
The Braves (3-7 overall, 1-0 VVAL) took control of the game in the second quarter when they went on a massive 13-1 run to gain a 27-14 advantage. In that period, they only allowed three points total and forced a total of 16 turnovers in the first half. This helped them gain a comfortable lead.
“Well, give Napa a lot of credit,” Justin-Siena first-year head coach Corey Battle explained as to how they were able to go on a big burst to gain some breathing room in the second quarter. “They’re a very disciplined team, and we just wanted to mess up their rhythm a little bit, just not make them feel comfortable. It worked very well in the second quarter, just a lot of pressure making them put the ball down on the ground, think a little bit faster, play, a little bit faster than they’re used to.”
In addition, Justin-Siena was able to use its small lineup to speed up the game and jump passing lanes during that period.
“It started on the defensive end scoring three points in a whole quarter that’s like really hard to do,” Justin-Siena senior guard Josh Madayag added on how they gained a big lead in the second quarter. “So yeah, our defense came and we basically took over the second quarter.”
In the contest, Madayag finished with a game-leading 24 points and brought in a rebound. He scored 15 points in the first half. Madayag also went 3 of 4 from the free throw line and made 5 shots from three-point land.
“I feel like it started out on the defensive end,” Madayag explained of how he was able to lead the game in scoring. “I got few quick steals to start the game, and (it) just got me in a rhythm. And everything else came, like the shots, and then my teammates were feeding me too.”
One reason he got off to such a great start in the first half was all the steals he made, which led to easy layups on the other end.
“There’s been glimpses of it all year,” Battle said of Madayag’s game. “Tonight, I think he put it all together. Because normally, each game you get something, he knocks down shots, or he plays defense. Today, I think he got himself going on the defensive end, where he got two steals for easy buckets. He got to the free-throw line, got to see the (ball go in the) hoop and he was feeling good today.”
Also scoring in double-digits for the Braves was Asa Hightower. He finished with 10 points and brought in a rebound. He scored 8 points in the second half and made a shot from deep while going 1 of 2 from the line.
Rounding out the scoring for Justin-Siena were Xiano Ortega (7 points, 4 rebounds), Dom Pucci (5 points, 2 rebounds), Alejandro Perryman (5 points), Eli Jackson (5 points), Armani Maxwell (4 points), and Greyson Wong (2 points).
This was also the Braves’ first win in the league under Battle. But more importantly, they executed down the stretch to seal the deal, something they had a hard time with early on in the season. This was also their first game in Napa after a monster of a non-league schedule that got them ready for league.
“For me, personally, it’s huge as my first win in the area and in this league, definitely,” Battle said of the first win in town “We’re glad to be back. Like you said, we went to some we went through, we went through a gauntlet of some good teams there only to get prepared for situations like this tonight. But for me personally, as a coach for my first year here in the Napa area, I definitely am very proud and I’m very happy about my team.”
Napa High (4-6, 0-1 VVAL) was able to fight back in the third quarter. They began this period on a 10-0 run, which cut the deficit to seven. By the time the period ended, they were only down 37-35 after holding Justin-Siena to four points in the period.
“We just talked about being sharper,” Napa High head coach Carson Carattini said as to what was talked about at the break to lead to a massive third quarter where they outscored Justin-Siena 19-4. “I think we were doing a lot of the same things, but we were just sharper in the second half, rotating a little bit better, defending, playing the passing lanes, getting better shots. I mean, when we do that, we play good basketball. We just gotta do it consistently.”
One thing they also did well was minimize mistakes, which helped the Grizzlies claw their way back into the game. After all, when you run the offense cleanly good things generally happen.
Leading Napa in the game was Gael Bazounguissa who finished with a team-high 20 points and 6 rebounds. The senior got going in the second half when the offense ran much better and scored 13 points. He was also 7 of 9 from the free-throw line in the game.
“We took care of the basketball, so we were able to get down and get shots for him,” Carattini explained. “Running our offense, he’s our primary scorer. So we run stuff to get him the ball. So we were just able to get him the ball in the spots, everywhere he wants it and he’s able to attack and finish and he does a good job with that.”
Aiden Faughn was the Grizzlies’ second-leading scorer with 10 points and a rebound. He scored all of his points in the second half and made a pair of shots from downtown in the game.
Others scoring in the game for Napa were Henry MacPherson (9 points on a trio of 3s and 2 rebounds), Will Flynn (7 points, 6 rebounds, blocked shot), German Camacho (7 points, 6 rebounds, blocked shot), and Tideus Chaidez (2 points).
Both teams will continue the league season with home games next week. Napa will host American Canyon on Monday night at 7 pm. As for Justin-Siena, they’ll have the league bye and host Casa Grande-Petaluma on Wednesday night at 7 pm in what will be their first home game of the season.
In other VVAL games Friday night, Vintage beat Petaluma 63-36 and Casa Grande beat American Canyon 55-47.
