Laney vaults out to early lead with intense defensive pressure to beat Napa Valley in BVC play
By Kyle Foster
Twitter/X: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
In the NBA, there are scheduled losses. No matter what you do, chances are you will lose that game.
This happened in a Bay Valley Conference matchup on Friday night as Laney-Oakland beat Napa Valley, 78-45, in a game played at Storm Gym.
The Eagles (18-3 overall, 9-0 BVC) took control of the game from the opening tip. They quickly vaulted out to a 12-0 lead halfway through the first quarter. From then on, Laney held a 25-8 lead after a frame to all but have control of the game.
In that period and throughout the first half, they used their intense defense to force a bunch of turnovers and make it hard to do anything.
Laney is a hard team to face because they don’t have anything to exploit weakness-wise. For this reason, they are ranked No. 6 in the state, and easily the team to beat in the Bay Valley Conference. They should also be a top 3 seed in the Northern California regionals later in the season.
“They don’t really have weaknesses and they’re just a very strong basketball team,” Napa Valley College head coach Paul DeBolt explained. “Well coached, they have good players, and they’re very good. I really thought our kids for the circumstances that we’re in where we don’t we haven’t played a team like that in a long time, I thought we held up decently. We obviously have turned the ball over and had our flaws, but the kids never gave the players never gave up, didn’t hang their heads.”
Another thing that made the Eagles so impressive was how they distributed the scoring. In the game, they had five players score double-digits. This makes them nearly impossible to defend and game plan for.
But it had also been a while since Napa Valley (11-10, 7-2 BVC) had faced a top team like this. However, all it does is help them as the season goes on.
“It’s an opportunity just to kind of see where you are and as a team this year as a program,” DeBolt said of the measuring stick game. “They take advantage. We’re not real deep. It’s always an opportunity to show who you are.”
If there was one thing that the Storm had gone well, it was the play of Arianna Aguilar. The freshman continues to get better with each game. After all, she finished with a game-high of 19 points and 1 rebound in the game.
“They were double-teaming Rose (Jamison),” DeBolt pointed out. “ So, I mean, it does not take anything away from Ari, because Ari is playing really well, but they’re really focused on Rose. What teams are doing is they’re their best defender guarding Rose, and then they have someone else who is stepping toward her.
“That being said, Ari had a great game because she had to step up,” DeBolt continued. “I mean she was that the one who could get it going once she kind of felt her got her rhythm and understood that she needed to get closer to the basket, needed to get beyond the first line of defense and take those mid-range shots, which she did, and she’s just had a spectacular year.”
Aguilar was able to do it by scoring 13 points in the first half and making 2 of 3 shots from the free-throw line. She also made one shot from downtown in the game.
After that, Napa didn’t have anyone else in double digits. Rose Jamison had 9 points, 11 rebounds, and 3 blocked shots in the game. But she was being focused on by the defense and did most of her scoring in the second half.
Also finishing with 9 points and 6 rebounds in the game was Jazmine Fontilla. The freshman scored 5 points in the second half and made one shot from beyond the arc in the game.
Others scoring for the Storm were Ashley Torres (5 points, 3 rebounds), Helena White (2 points, 4 rebounds), and Marticia Pollard (1 point, 7 rebounds).
While this loss was expected, it still is a bit of a painful one as Napa Valley needs to finish in second place alone to go to the CCCAA Northern California Regional playoffs. They are still in a good spot after beating Marin and Solano last week. They will need to handle their business from here on out with 7 games to play.
“Just one at a time,” DeBolt said of the approach from here. “We’re not worried about seven (games), we’re worried about one. We got through this one healthy and that’s important. And now it’s just getting, just getting our getting the mojo back and getting after it one at a time.”
Napa Valley will continue BVC action next Wednesday at 7:30 pm when they host Merritt-Oakland.
