American Canyon gets offense flowing better with third quarter run, edges Justin-Siena in nail-biter
By Kyle Foster
Twitter/X: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
When a game is even, every chess move made is key. These games are tight this year in league play.
In a local Vine Valley Athletic League battle, American Canyon was able to get their offense going a bit better in the second half to beat Justin-Siena in a game played at the Daniel J. Clark Gym on Wednesday night.
The Wolves (7-13, 4-2 VVAL) took control of the game in the third quarter, going on a 9-0 run to go up 46-38 midway through the period. American Canyon knocked down shots during this run and shifted the momentum to their side.
“I think that 9-o run started with defense,” American Canyon guard Justin Laron pointed out. “Our principals are no middle and they have no fun out there. And I feel like if everybody plays their man as if they’re the best player, I feel like we create turnovers, we speed them up, and I feel like we get easy points off of that.”
Before that, they went on a 9-2 run in the first quarter to lead 21-19. During this burst, the Wolves played a hounding defense to force turnovers and speed up the game.
“We’ve been struggling to score more than 50 (points) this year,” American Canyon head coach Scott Hayburn explained. “So we gotta play tight defense. We have to play sound defense.”
It also helped that they got a massive effort from Tito Villanueva. He finished with a game-leading 18 points in the contest. Villanueva did all of his damage in the first half, where he scored 10 points. He also made four shots from downtown and was perfect at the line going 4 of 4 there.
“When they went to the zone, we felt like we had to be able to stretch the floor,” Hayburn said of Villanueva’s impact. “Tito’s got a very quick jumper. He handles the ball very well, and he’s fearless. He’s a player who doesn’t feel the moment. So we knew if we gave him the opportunity, he’d come through for us.”
In the game, Laron finished with 15 points. He scored 8 points in the second half of the game and made all 4 shots from the free-throw line. While the scoring was great to help, where Laron made his difference was on the defensive end.
“That’s something I struggled on at the start of the season, but as I got more confident, I’ve been finding my ways to score, whether it’s by pick and roll with Abdul (Kates) or it’s when I get into the mid-range,” Laron said of his ability to score around the rim. “I feel like I’m free out there when I play and I’m just having fun playing.”
Others scoring in the game for the Wolves were Gabriel Moore (7 points), Abdul Kates (5 points), Jona Budu (4 points), Ameir Barfield (4 points), and Israel Jiminez (2 points).
As the league season has gone on American Canyon has also started to find its footing. They have also won 7 of their last 8 games. All of this has also vaulted them into a tie for second in the VVAL.
“We’re still very far from our potential, and that’s really all I’m focused on,” Hayburn said. “How can we how can we have made tonight’s game not a nail-biter? How could we have closed out Vintage much better? So Max preps might say that we’re hot right now, but we still have a lot of work to do.”
Justin-Siena (6-10, 4-2 VVAL) used their trapping defense to control the game early and kept it close throughout.
“We like to mix up our defenses,” Justin-Siena first-year head coach Corey Battle said of the defense that gave the Braves the advantage early. “We go full-court, half-court, we try to keep you off balance. The traps, we kind of allow you to put yourself in those situations, which is why you can’t really tell what type of defense we’re in.”
Asa Hightower led the Braves in the game. The junior forward finished with a team-leading 14 points and 5 rebounds. Hightower scored 8 points in the second half and did all of his scoring around the rim.
“At the end of the day, he’s our go-to guy,” Battle explained. “So we’re gonna look for him. He’s relentless. He’s relentless going going to the basket.”
After that, Justin-Siena had only single-digit scorers. Others scoring for the Braves were Xiano Ortega (8 points, 5 rebounds), Alejandro Perryman (8 points, 1 rebound), Dallas Logwood (7 points, 3 rebounds), Josh Madayag (5 points, 1 rebound), Bradley Bautista (3 points), Eli Wilson (3 points), and Alex Winske (2 points, 1 rebound, blocked shot).
Both teams will start the second part of round-robin league play with games on Saturday. American Canyon will head to Petaluma to face Casa Grande at 7 pm and Justin-Siena will host Napa High at 5:30 pm.
In the league opener on January 3rd, Casa Grande beat American Canyon 55-47, and Justin-Siena beat Napa 62-55.
Other VVAL action Wednesday night saw Casa Grande beat Vintage 56-46 and Napa beat Sonoma Valley 59-39.
