Casa Grande uses strong defense to go on early run, beat Vintage in league opener

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By Kyle Foster

kfost91197@gmail.com

Twitter/X: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews

There are reasons why a team can come into league play as one of the favorites to be in contention or even repeat for the league title. These teams always tend to stand out and take control of things early on. 

On Tuesday night in Crusher Gym, this is what Casa Grande-Petaluma did as they beat Vintage, 62-39, in a Vine Valley Athletic League opener. 

The Gauchos (9-5, 1-0 VVAL) took control of the game from the opening tip. To begin the first period, they ran off a 10-0 run and ended the quarter with a 16-6 lead. 

Casa Grande was able to further extend its lead due in large part to the full-court press, which caused issues all night and led to plenty of free buckets on the other end. 

“I just think defensively, their physicality got to us, their ability to be in gaps and read our passes, they did a great job of that,” Vintage head coach Matt Uffmann said. “Then on top of that, when they turned us over, they capitalized on those turnovers.” 

It also helped the Gauchos have the reigning league MVP in David Isola. The junior was a force all night, and he ended the contest with a game-high of 17 points.   

“We had a hard time containing everyone,” Uffmann explained. “So in terms of containing 23, that was definitely on our scouting report, and we just didn’t execute it well enough to actually stop him the way we needed to.

Vintage (5-9, 0-1 VVAL) would keep the game close after the slow start. They were able to keep the deficit at 10 points. But the deficit was just too much to overcome. A third quarter where they were outscored 19-9 put the game out of reach. 

One reason why the Crushers were able to hang around for a bit in the first half was because of senior guard Anthony Willmert. He ended the night with a team-leading 10 points. Willmert scored 8 points in the first half of the game. He also made a three-pointer and made 1 of 4 shots from the free-throw line.   

“Ant has all the energy in the world, and he brings that to our game, whether it be off the bench, whether he’s starting, he’s got high, high energy, quick feet, quick first step in order to get to the basket,” Uffmann said of Willmert, who led the team in scoring. “I think I needed to call a better game for our guys to get our offense going because that defense just stifled us.” 

Others scoring for Vintage in the game were Hayden Biedermann (7 points, 1 rebound), Dominic Oram (7 points, 1 rebound), Adar Yildiz (6 points, 6 rebounds, blocked shot), Rory Holland (4 points, 5 rebounds, 2 blocked shots), Austin Broyles (3 points, 2 rebounds), and Evan Rosette (2 points, 1 rebound). 

Vintage will be back in action on Thursday at 7 pm when they visit Napa High for the first Big Game of the season.  

In other VVAL action Tuesday night, Napa beat American Canyon 57-50, and Sonoma Valley beat Petaluma 64-57.