Los Medanos opens up game in second half with better shooting to beat Napa Valley after slow start
By Kyle Foster, photo courtesy of Eric Thompson (Shamboozled.com)
Twitter/X: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
You can’t have a bad stretch in a basketball game because it will hurt you. Matching buckets is key to staying in the game.
In Wednesday night’s Bay Valley Conference game, Los Medanos-Pittsburg was able to do this in the second half after a slow start to beat Napa Valley, 56-44, at Storm Gym.
The Mustangs (13-10, 7-4 BVC) were able to get the offense going in the second half. After losing the lead to begin the second half, they went on a 21-9 run to start the final part of the game and gain an advantage.
“We short-closed on a couple of their shooters,” Napa Valley College head coach Steve Ball said of where things went wrong defensively in the second half. “So instead of it being a contested three, it was a semi-contested three or an uncontested three. And they’ve got a couple guys out there that can (shoot) just because they can knock those shots down.”
Los Medanos also started making shots from deep in the second half after they had a lot of missed opportunities in the first.
However, the start of this thing was very much in Napa Valley’s (3-21, 2-10 BVC) control. They began the game on a nice 10-0 run which gave them the hammer early. They were able to do this by attacking the zone defense and finding some good looks. They also did this by using an ultra-slow tempo.
“They play a lot of 2-3 zone and when you rush against it, you’re rushing into more bodies,” Ball explained of the fast start early on. “I thought that we did a really good job of moving the ball in the first probably eight minutes of the game, I think we got to 12 points pretty quickly, and then we got stuck on that number for about three, four minutes, probably, I don’t even know what the exact number is, but we got stuck on 12 and then and then, while meanwhile, we were doing a good job defending, but they still attrition, they’re gonna make some shots. And we weren’t making shots for quite a big, quite a big stretch there.”
The game could’ve stayed tighter for longer had the Storm converted more good looks that they had in the second half of the game. They were able to beat the defense and get the look they wanted, but couldn’t make the shot when needed.
“We just gotta make plays,” Ball pointed out. “It’s weird because we don’t zone, right? And so they were, they’re playing a lot of zone. And so it’s a, it’s a different look on the finish than it would be if you’re in man to man. So maybe that threw us off a little bit. But I’ve got faith in us to finish those shots at the rim.”
It was a very tough game to score all night long. This was evident on the box scores especially as the Storm had just one player in double figures. That one player was freshman E’Jay Rogers who finished with a game-leading 16 points to go along with 5 rebounds. Rogers scored 11 points in the second half and made a trio of shots from beyond the arc in the game while also making his lone free throw.
“E’Jay’s got a lot of potential,” Ball said of the freshman who has been getting better with each game. “When he plays with his confidence, he can, he can do those things.”
After that, the scoring was thin. Others scoring for the Storm in the game were Jayden Robinson (6 points, 4 rebounds), Hassan Flemming (6 points, 2 rebounds), Chris Farrington (5 points, 5 rebounds), Nate Broome (4 points, 9 rebounds, 2 blocked shots), Naajy Bynum-Bey (3 points, 4 rebounds), Jamari Taylor (2 points, 4 rebounds), and CJ Mitchell (2 points, 1 rebound).
Napa Valley will be back in action on Friday night at 5:30 pm when they visit Contra Costa.
