Vintage uses on-ball pressure to go on fourth quarter run, get come from behind win over Petaluma in league opener
By Kyle Foster
Twitter/X: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
Finding a way to win when you don’t exactly play your best game is a trait of a good team. After all, there will be times when you just don’t play your best but getting a win is still big.
On Saturday night at Crusher Gym, Vintage did this as they came from behind to beat Petaluma, 53-51, in a Vine Valley Athletic League opener.
The Crushers (6-8 overall, 1-0 VVAL) were able to make the comeback thanks to a big 14-1 run, which gave them a 48-46 lead as the game was coming to an end. They were able to do this due in large part to on-ball pressure, which forced a ton of turnovers and sped up the pace of the game.
“We couldn’t get any rhythm,” Vintage first-year head coach Hannah Newman said of the first three quarters and how they were able to come back in the end. “We couldn’t get anything to kind of work for us. So we were playing around with our different defenses, just seeing what would stick. We weren’t having success in our zone. So it was like, ‘Let’s play man and see what happens.’ The girls just gave it 100% there at the end and it went our way.”
In that period, they also outscored Petaluma 19-9. The full-court man press also made the Trojans get squirmy with the ball.
“So we started off the game and we got in early foul trouble, so it kind of took away the initial game plan,” Newman pointed out how foul trouble made them go into a zone earlier than they had wanted to. “But as the game went on making the adjustment of picking up and putting more pressure on the ball, it obviously worked, and it would have been nice to run that earlier. But like I said, we were in foul trouble the whole game, and so it’s hard to take our big key players out.”
This is also a major confidence-boosting win for Vintage who has been on a roll as of late. Now they have won 5 games in a row dating back to December 17th. Part of that is that they have gotten healthy and have been through a tough schedule. During the winning streak, they won the West Coast Jamboree Topaz bracket leading up to this.
“It’s definitely getting healthy,” Newman said as to how her team has caught fire lately. “We have a big team, we have 14 girls, and I’ve been playing with maybe eight of them, 10 of them healthy every game. So it’s hard to get into a rhythm. It’s hard to feel like you’re competing in games when you have big pieces missing every single time. The Wood game kind of started it for us. We got to win there, and went into the West Coast Jamboree, and we took home first place, and it was just I think it’s getting healthy, and then the confidence is just finally coming around. The girls feel confident on the court, and so it’s translating into league. It couldn’t have come in a more perfect time.”
This is also the first win for Newman in league play while at the helm. But after the league season didn’t go how they wanted it to last season, they are out to prove what they can do in the league.
“Obviously, I’ve been with the girls for a while,” Newman explained. “I’ve been preaching to them that we were kind of like counted out. We had a hard year last year. This is our year to prove something, and I wanted us to make a statement coming into (the) league. This might not have been the prettiest game, and it might not have been perfect, but it’s a win. That’s more than we did last year really. We have a big on (the fact that) we have to prove ourselves. It’s just nice to get it out of the way. All the nerves are kind of gone. So hopefully we stay on that path.”
Finishing as the leading scorer for Vintage in the game was Ashley Gerenser. The freshman finished with a team-leading 13 points and 3 rebounds in the game. She scored 10 points in the first half and made 2 of 3 shots from the free-throw line.
Elinor Travers finished with 12 points and 9 rebounds in the game. She was the main beneficiary of the offensive pace going up in the fourth quarter as she scored 10 points in the second half. She also made both of her shots from the stripe in the game.
Rounding out the trio of scorers in double-digits was Luna Aguilar Loera who scored 11 points and blocked 2 shots. She scored 7 points in the second half and made 3 of 6 shots at the line in the game.
Others scoring for the Crushers in the game were Brooklyn Perez (8 points, 4 rebounds), Aranza Aguilar Loera (5 points), Lauren Gerenser (2 points, 2 rebounds), and Viviana Mitrerojas (2 points, 1 rebound).
Vintage will continue VVAL play on Tuesday night at 7 PM when they visit Sonoma Valley who had the bye to begin league play. In other games Saturday, Justin-Siena beat Napa 57-9 and American Canyon beat Casa Grande 58-20.
