Justin-Siena puts on defensive display to roll past Casa Grande, punch ticket to second straight VVAL tournament title game
By Kyle Foster
Twitter/X: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
If there’s one thing that will always travel as the season goes on, it’s defense. This is why teams always work on it and try to improve. However, a defensive display is also nice from time to time.
In Thursday night’s Vine Valley Athletic League conference semifinal, this is what No. 1 seeded Justin-Siena did as they rolled past No. 5 Casa Grande-Petaluma, 51-9, in a game played at the Daniel J. Clark Gym.
The Braves (24-2) were able to put the game away from the opening tip when they started the game on a 13-0 run. They would take a whopping 32-2 lead with them into the break.
This is no surprise, as the defensive end has been the team’s identity all season long.
“We talk all the time about setting the tone with our defense,” Justin-Siena head coach Andy Bettencourt explained. “Our players really understand that and buy into it. I thought they did a great job of coming out and executing our game plan defensively.”
Justin-Siena also allowed points in the first and third quarters of the game, with most trips down the floor resulting in one shot and getting the ball again for some easy offense.
The easy offense’s main beneficiary was senior center Jordan Washington, who scored a game-leading 21 points, grabbed 8 rebounds, and blocked a shot. She took advantage of fast break opportunities in the first half where she scored 15 points and 8 of those were in the first quarter. Washington also made 1 of 2 free throws in the game
“That’s something that we really focused on with Jordan this year, was getting out in the fast break and pushing the ball,” Bettencourt said of Washington getting easy fast break layups all game to lead the contest in scoring. “I mean, she’s such a dynamic player, not only can she score in the post or make an outside shot, but she can also bring the ball up the floor and score in transition and make moves in transition. So we’re very lucky to have her.”
Also finishing in double figures for the Braves was junior guard Dylan Zapolski. She ended the night with 10 points. She scored 8 points in the first half and converted both free throws in the game.
“It’s interesting, Dylan obviously, is not shooting the way that she shot it last year, or scoring, maybe at the rate that she did last year, but she’s playing a lot better,” Bettencourt added. “She defends at a much higher level. Offensively, her assists, her passing she’s really done a great job of valuing the ball. She doesn’t turn it over a lot. So she’s doing so many good things on the floor that sometimes it gets masked by the fact that maybe she hasn’t shot it as well in all our games, but she is playing really well, and she’s been a huge reason for our success.”
Others scoring for Justin-Siena in the game were Lauren Keller (4 points, 2 rebounds), Paige Helms (4 points, 1 rebound), Caiden Grimmer (4 points, 1 rebound), Jesilyn Beaulac (3 points, 2 rebounds), Sophia Dominici (3 points, 1 rebound), and Lydia Heil (2 points, 3 rebounds).
With the win, the Braves will advance to the VVAL tournament championship game on Saturday night at Napa High, which will start at 5 pm. This will be their second straight trip to the title game, too. It’s something they’re not taking for granted.
“We talked about that in the locker room, that the last thing we want to do is take this for granted because this doesn’t happen every year,” Bettencourt said of returning to the league title game. “Before last year, it had been since 2015 that we’d been in a league championship game. So our players have really owned the fact that they want to be great. They want to do the absolute best and be one of the best teams that this school has seen. So if you want to do that, you got to play in games like this and quite frankly, you’ve got to win them. So that’s our goal on Saturday.”
In that game on Saturday, they’ll face No. 2 American Canyon for the third time this season after they beat No. 3 Sonoma Valley 54-51 on Thursday. On January 21st, they beat the Wolves 60-43, and then on February 8th, they won a close one, 44-36.
Following the girls’ game on Saturday will be the boys final featuring No. 2 American Canyon against No. 1 Casa Grande at 7 pm.
