Antioch uses fast start to extra period, makes a bit more plays to beat Napa in overtime thriller on Senior Night
By Kyle Foster
Twitter/X: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
When a game goes to overtime, it’s another chance to fix what happened in regulation in your favor- a second chance if you will.
On Monday night, in a rare nonleague game on Senior Night, it came down to every last detail as Antioch edged Napa, 50-49, at Messner Gym.
The Panthers (8-16) got the win thanks to a strong start to overtime. In a blink, they went up 49-42 thanks to scoring the first seven points of the extra frame. It helped that they were also knocking down some threes in the first two minutes of the period to get the momentum on their side.
“Some mental miscues there,” Napa High head coach Carson Carattini said of what the difference was and how the Panthers were able to start OT hot. “They got good foot speed. I think we we train a lot too to be athletic and be able to keep up with those types of teams. We see a lot of those East Bay teams throughout the preseason. So nothing that we’re not familiar with. Just a couple (of) mental mistakes there late in the game.”
Antioch also got the lead in the second quarter when they began the period on an 11-4 run, which gave them a 20-18 lead for their first lead of the contest.
It also helped that sophomore guard Dereon Ourm-Blackmon, who finished with a team-leading 19 points, had a nice game for Antioch. He had no bigger moment than when he was fouled with 4.1 seconds left after a shot from behind the three-point line and was able to make 2 of the 3 free throws in that sequence to force the extra period.
Overtime is nothing new to the Panthers so far this season. After all, they are now 3-1 in extra time this season. But the most interesting part of this is that they are 2-0 in overtime after beating Vintage 63-56 in OT back on December 27th.
Napa High (10-15) forced the extra period after being down by 10 points in different parts of the second half. In the final period of regulation, they also allowed just four points but were unable to capitalize on the offensive end with turnovers and bad shot selection haunting them.
In the game, the Grizzlies were led by senior Gael Bazounguissa who finished with a game-high of 23 points and 6 rebounds. He scored 14 points in the first half, with 9 of them coming in the first quarter. Bazounguissa also made a pair of shots from three-point range and went 1 of 2 from the free-throw line.
“If he can knock down the three-point shot, that really makes him tough to guard because he can score it at all levels,” Carattini explained of Bazounguissa. “He finishes at the basket really well. He’s got a nice little mid-range jump shot, and so when he’s knocking down the three, you’ve got to cover 20-25 feet of space and that’s hard to do especially with a guy that talented.”
Also having a good game was Aiden Faughn. The senior finished with 10 points and 4 rebounds. He also scored 7 points in the second half and made one shot from downtown in the game.
“We’re trying to find him in spots that he could score the basketball,” Carattini added. “We’ve got a lot of talent so at times, guys have a have a harder time getting in a rhythm because somebody else is getting going. So just trying to keep them all involved and try to get as many touches to to our great players as we can. In the second half, we did a better job getting the ball to Aiden, he did a better job getting to spots where he wanted to score from. So that was nice.”
Others scoring for Napa in the game were Patricio Buocristiani (5 points, 1 rebound), Will Flynn (4 points, 5 rebounds, 3 blocked shots), German Comacho (4 points, 4 rebounds), and Sawyer Knect (3 points).
Overtime hasn’t been kind to the Grizzlies this year. They own a 1-2 record with the lone win coming at Lowell on December 19th. They also lost to Petaluma 54-53 on January 30th.
“We had one earlier in the year that we did pull out. So I think that puts us at 1-2 in overtime,” Carattini said of overtime and how it’s been to them this season. “ The end of that game was about execution. They just made a couple more plays than we did and they ended up on top. Give them credit for coming a long way and playing it, playing a good basketball game.”
Before the game, the program also honored its 6 seniors as part of the Senior Night festivities. Those honored before the game were Comacho, Bazounguissa, JJ Villegas, Buocrstiani, Faughn, and Kyle Blackwood.
“It’s been a great group,” Carattini said of his senior group that he’s had in the program for three years. “Now in our third year together, I thought this group really showed the long-term development of our program. These weren’t guys who were superstars at the lower level or were pulled up as young guys. They developed on JV and on freshmen and kept working hard and kept grinding in our program and doing the things that we do every day to get better.”
While this ends the regularly scheduled games, Napa won’t have much time to think about it as they will begin the VVAL Tournament on Tuesday at 7 pm where they will travel to Justin-Siena in the quarterfinal round. Napa is the 5 seed and Justin-Siena is the 4, which makes sense since these two teams played some good games this season to split the series. This will be the rubber match for the year. On January 3rd, Justin-Siena beat Napa 62-55, and then on January 25th, Napa won over Justin-Siena 63-56.
“Anytime you get to play a hometown team, that makes it a little bit extra fun,” Carattini said of the rubber match with the Braves. “These guys grew up playing against and growing up seeing playing all these sports and going to school together. So that always makes things exciting. I think there’s a little bit more to those games. You’re getting to see guys who grew up playing together get to compete against each other. So there’s always a little bit more emotion playing Justin, playing Vintage. So we just want to control our emotions and go out there and go out there and try to play good basketball.”
