Pinole Valley uses monster fourth quarter to comeback and beat Justin-Siena in Christmas Classic

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By Kyle Foster

kfost91197@gmail.com

Twitter/X: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews

Throughout the course of a season, there will be some games that you feel as if you should’ve won, and you ended up losing. 

On the second day of the Christmas Classic, Friday night, this is what happened as Pinole Valley beat Justin-Siena, 59-50, in a non-league game at Clark Gym. 

Pinole Valley (2-5) had trailed the whole game until they opened the fourth quarter with a huge 21-2 run that put them up 57-45. The Spartans did this by utilizing the full-court press to force turnovers and take Justin-Siena out of any sort of rhythm. 

“They pressured up. They did a phenomenal job of attacking us,” Justin-Siena head coach Andy Bettencourt said. “I thought we backed down to the pressure. We got chaotic, and we kind of got out of sorts, and then they capitalized on our mistakes, and credit to them for doing that, obviously.” 

The second quarter saw Pinole Valley also go on a run where they took a 21-15 lead after an 11-2 burst to begin the period. However, the Braves fought back and tied things up at 27 at the half. 

“I mean, we talked about after the game, honestly, we felt like when we played well tonight, we still didn’t make enough of the layups and free throws that we were getting to extend the lead, Bettencourt explained of the missed opportunities that cost the Braves in the game. “And when you do that against a good team, they’re inevitably going to come back. And they started making more of those shots than we did. Always proud of these girls, they fight. Our girls are never going to give up. And they fought back in the second quarter, but they just punched hardest, and they punched last in the fourth quarter, unfortunately for us.” 

To begin the contest, Justin-Siena (5-2) went on a 7-0 scoring run after each team traded buckets to start the game.  

On most nights, having a trio of players in double figures would get the job done. This is what Justin-Siena did. 

“We’ve got a lot of depth,” Bettencourt pointed out on his team’s ability to score. “We’ve got a couple of other kids on this team that can and have already this season scored in double digits.  So we know that if we share the ball and work together to get open shots, it’s going to be different kids’ opportunities on different nights. But yeah, having the ability to score is really good. We’ve got to do a better job taking care of it, and we’ve got to do a better job of finishing when we get the chance.” 

Leading the Braves in the game was senior Lauren Keller. She finished with a team-high 15 points and 5 rebounds. She scored 9 points in the first half and made her only shots from the free-throw line. 

After that, it was sophomore Haven Stone who finished with 12 points and 1 rebound. She scored 8 points in the first half and made 2 of 5 free throws. Stone also knocked down a pair of shots from deep in the game. All this comes as she continues to grow and get more and more acclimated to the offense. 

“Haven is doing a phenomenal job of continuing to buy in and playing the way that the rest of our team plays,” Bettencourt added. “She’s a phenomenal player and such a good kid. She’s working really hard, and we’re just really fortunate to have her, quite frankly.” 

Dylan Zapolski was the final scorer to help the Braves in the game. The senior scored 10 points and grabbed 3 rebounds. She scored 5 points in each half and made a pair of threes in the game. 

“Dylan’s a really good player and a really good shooter, and when she steps into her shot with confidence like she did tonight, it’s a really big plus for our team and for her,” Bettencourt said of the senior guard. “I’m really proud of her for responding. She had a rough shooting night last night, came out today, and just came out with intention and really knocked down some big shots for us.” 

Others scoring for the Braves in the game were Caiden Grimmer (5 points, 3 rebounds), Alyssa Vargas (4 points, 2 rebounds), and Katie Kelleher (4 points, 2 rebounds).

While this loss is rough, the good news is that Justin-Siena has a very quick turnaround. They’ll end the Christmas Classic on Saturday at 1 pm when they host Arcata.  

“My sleep schedule doesn’t love it because I got to get up and put together a scouting report for Arcata,” Bettencourt joked. “But it’s nice for the kids to be able to be back in the gym, quickly turn around, and just go compete again with no time to really stew or anything.”