Casa Grande uses first-half three-point shooting, key second quarter to beat Vintage on Senior Night
By Kyle Foster
Twitter/X: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
With the games being so winnable, you must be good in the small margins. It all matters whether it’s holding onto the ball and making the right decision or staying composed.
On Saturday night at Crusher Gym, all of these came into play as Casa Grande beat Vintage, 64-55, in the Vine Valley Athletic League regular-season finale for both teams.
The Gauchos (16-10 overall, 11-1 VVAL) took control of the game with a solid second quarter. In the frame, they were able to go from being down by a bucket to up by 10.
Part of the reason why Casa Grande was able to gain that advantage heading into the break was the fact that they made a whopping 8 shots from beyond the arc in the first half. They also were able to take advantage of other scoring opportunities, which turned into some layups.
As for Vintage (8-17, 4-8 VVAL), they were able to keep the game close the whole way. At the start, they matched bucket for bucket and even took a 19-17 lead with them after the first quarter.
The Crushers also willed their way back to within four points in the third quarter thanks to some strong defense. It also helped that they limited the shots from deep from going in during this time.
“I think it was a combination of two things,” Vintage head coach Ben Gongora said. “One, Casa came out on fire. They hit eight threes in the first half. So that is a lot. We knew that that is not sustainable, right? No one can do that unless it’s garbage time or you’re just shooting to play catch up or you’re down 20 or 30, and then you’re gonna start jacking up threes in the second half. We made an adjustment at halftime to maybe give up the drive more and take away the three. We only gave up one three.”
On the offensive side, Vintage looked much more like the team they could be after getting some players back. In the contest, they had four players in double-figures for the game, which has been a winning formula this season.
Leading them in the game was Rory Holland. The junior finished with a team-high 14 points, 4 rebounds, and a blocked shot. He scored all of his buckets from around the rim, with 8 points coming in the second half.
“Rory, his progress was delayed when he just bad luck had that massive ankle injury, just gruesome,” Gongora recalled. “His ankle was black and blue. It was disgusting. And he was out for five weeks, and then it took him a good two, two and a half, three weeks to kind of get his bearings. And Rory has been great the last couple weeks. I mean, Rory has been solid.”
Also having a nice game was senior Grayson Frye who finished with 12 points and 3 rebounds. He scored 7 points in the second half and made a pair of shots from three-point range in the game.
Gabe Carrejo added 12 points and 2 rebounds. He also scored 9 of those in the first half and made 3 of 5 shots from the line in the game.
But maybe the most impressive game for Vintage came from junior Adar Yildiz. He finished with a double-double of 10 points and 11 rebounds. He scored 5 points in each half and made 4 of 5 free throws.
“He’s actually done this a number of times,” Gongora explained. “He did it at Sonoma. He had 15 points and 13 rebounds when we played there and got a loss. Adar, I love this kid. He’s just relentless. He’s very easy to coach. He’s extremely loyal, and he just lays it out every night.”
Others scoring in the game for the Crushers were Evan Rosette (6 points, 5 rebounds) and Anthony Wilmert (2 points, 2 rebounds).
Before the game, the program honored its 3 seniors. Those honored as part of Senior Night were Carrejo, Frye, and Jonah Harris.
With the result, Vintage earned the No. 6 seed and will visit the No. 3 seed Sonoma Valley on Tuesday night at 7 pm. So far this season, Vintage split with Sonoma losing 67-59 on January 6th and then winning 87-57 on January 28th.
Other matchups on Tuesday will feature No. 7 seed Petaluma at No. 2 seed American Canyon and No. 5 Napa High at No. 4 Justin-Siena. Both games should tip at 7 pm.
In the other league games on Saturday, Sonoma Valley beat Napa 73-42 and American Canyon beat Justin-Siena 66-47.
