Justin-Siena uses phycical play to get bounce-back win over Arcata in final game of Christmas Classic

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By Kyle Foster

kfost91197@gmail.com

Twitter/X: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews

When you buckle down when it matters, that shows how good a team can be. This is even better when it comes against some good competition. 

On Saturday afternoon in Ckark Gym, this is what the Justin-Siena girls did as they beat Arcata, 64-53, in the final game of the Christmas Classic. 

The Braves (6-2) were able to pull away in the fourth quarter, where they outscored Arcata 17-12. 

But before this, they took control of the game in the second quarter by using their full-court press and executing it to force turnovers. It also helped that they played it physically during this time, too. 

“Absolutely, we wanted to be more physical,” Justin-Siena head coach Andy Bettencourt said of the press and being more physical. “We wanted to see if we could get some steals and some run outs out of the press, and I thought we did a good job of that.” 

The other thing that helped was the fact that Justin-Siena continues to get help on offense from different people. They also had three players finish in double figures in the game. 

“We love the fact that we’ve got a bunch of kids that can fill it up and make plays and knock down shots,” Bettencourt added. “And I thought we got contributions up and down our roster tonight.” 

Arcata (6-2) took the lead in the second quarter behind a 10-0 run, where they flipped the script with their own full-court press to go up 27-26.

Leading the Braves’ offense in the game was senior Caiden Grimmer. She finished with a team-leading 14 points, 5 rebounds, and a blocked shot. She scored 10 points in the second half and made 5 of 7 free throws. This performance got Grimmer recognized as an all-tournament nominee.

“Just had to be more aggressive,” Grimmer said of her key second half. “I knew they were hard marking like the other two. So I felt like I needed to step up and just be more aggressive and just drive to the basket.” 

Also finishing in double-digits was a pair of players with 12 points each. One of them was Haven Stone, who had 12 points, 2 rebounds, to go along with a blocked shot. The sophomore scored 9 points in the first half and made 2 of 5 free throws. Stone was also named to the all-tournament team.

Lauren Keller also had 12 points and grabbed 6 rebounds in the game. She scored 6 points in each half and was always driving to the basket the whole game.    

Others scoring for Justin-Siena in the game were Dylan Zapolski (9 points, 2 rebounds), Katie Kelleher (8 points, 4 rebounds, blocked shot), Kayden Coloma (7 points, 3 rebounds), and Caroline Jonas (2 points, 2 rebounds).  

This was also a nice bounce-back response after yesterday, where Pinole Valley stole what should’ve been a win away from the Braves.

“It’s a huge win,” Grimmer added. “Because after yesterday, we had a rough fourth quarter, and then just to bounce back and take that win is just big. Because everyone thinks that after you lose, you just go down. We really picked it up and beat a really good team.” 

Justin-Siena went 2-1 in their tournament, along with Pinole Valley and Arcata. They will now take the Christmas week off before traveling to San Diego to face Valley Christian from Chandler, Arizona, in the first round of the Surf N Slam Tournament. They will be in the Surf Division. You can view the bracket here.   

The others named to the all-tournament team from other schools were Arcata’s Mae and Tae Wolford. For James Logan, it was Iwalani Lealao, and for Pinole Valley, Kassidy Miller and tournament MVP Dannyae Turner.