Justin-Siena uses key run to open second quarter to gain advantage, and beat Vintage in first Battle of Trower meeting

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By Kyle Foster, photo courtesy of Eric Thompson (Shamboozled.com)

Kfost91197@gmail.com

Twitter/X: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews

Bringing intensity to the defensive end can change a game in a matter of minutes. This is normally where a team can find its energy to get going. 

In Tuesday night’s Vine Valley Athletic League contest, this is what Justin-Siena did as they beat Vintage, 70-45, at the Dan Clark Gym in the season’s first Battle of Trower. 

The Braves (9-6 overall, 3-0 VVAL) took control of the game in the second quarter, where they opened the frame by scoring the first 8 points. This gave them a 21-13 lead that they would never relinquish the rest of the way. The quarter also saw the hosts win convincingly, outscoring Vintage 20-6. It was all because of defensive intensity, too. 

“Get out and play some defense. Get some stops,” Justin-Siena head coach Corey Battle explained as to what the message was to his team before the second quarter started. “I felt (that) if we could get some stops that could lead us to some easy baskets, to get us in a better offensive rhythm, they really threw us out of our offensive rhythm.” 

Justin-Siena then put the game out of reach with another 8-0 scoring run to take a 48-29 lead midway through the third quarter. 

In the contest, the Braves were led by a pair of scorers in double-digits. This has been a winning formula so far in league play.  

Leading the way with a game-high 19 points and 4 rebounds was Antoine Saleh. The senior guard scored 10 points in the second half and made 6 of 7 free throws in the game. 

After that, helping out with a nice effort off the bench was Greyson Wong. The junior scored 14 points and grabbed 5 rebounds. Wong scored 8 points in the second half and made four shots from the three-point line in the game.   

“Well, he played varsity for us last year as a sophomore,” Battle said. “So he has experience. When his game becomes consistent, he does things like this. He had a good week of practice so far shooting the ball. Well, I should say, last week, and it’s kind of turned over. So his rhythm has been a lot better shooting the ball. And I’ve been preaching to him about just overall effort in the game kind of brings everything else out. And that’s kind of what’s happening right now. He’s playing defense, he’s rebounding. It’s leading to shots that he makes.” 

Wong is also a high-energy guy who can do a lot of things off the bench. This role is also something he’s becoming more comfortable with after being up as a sophomore last season.

“He’s an energy guy,” Battle continued. “He’s definitely an energy guy. He’s similar to Antoine with his work ethic and how he is in the offseason. He runs track; he’s in the weight room. He’s one of the hardest workers we have. So he’s similar to Antoine in that way, but a little bit different.” 

Others scoring in the game for the Braves were Xiano Ortega (9 points, 8 rebounds), Asa Hightower (9 points, 4 rebounds, 2 blocked shots), Alejandro Perryman (7 points, 3 rebounds), Dylan Arnold (5 points, 6 rebounds), Dom Pucci (5 points, 1 rebound), and Adam Nahmias (2 points, 2 rebounds).

The Crushers (6-11, 1-3 VVAL) kept this game close, especially at the start of the contest. They held a lead briefly at the start of the game when they were up 13-10. 

“I was very proud of how we came out that first quarter,” Vintage head coach Matt Uffmann said. “I was proud of how we played the first half in general, really. And then on the flip side of that, the second half, again, proud of them not giving up, even when we were getting down. A lot of fast break opportunities for them that we needed to shut down. And again, our offense became a little stagnant, and that’s on me to clean up.” 

Vintage was also led by a pair of key players who finished the game by scoring 12 points in different ways. 

One of them was senior Adar Yildiz. He scored 12 points and brought down 7 rebounds. He scored 7 points in the second half and went 1 of 2 from the line. But more importantly, he was back to aggressively driving the lane, which is key to him scoring. 

“He started to look again, like he did toward the beginning of the season, which we’re proud of,” Uffmann added. “Because we’ve got a long season ahead, I know, maybe not a lot of weeks, but we’ve got a lot of games to still play.” 

The other one helping the Crushers’ offensive attack was sophomore Austin Broyles. He scored 7 points in the second half and made all 4 free throws in the game. Broyles also knocked down a pair of shots from the three-point line in the game. 

“He’s in our starting five because he works his tail off every single day in practice, and we want dogs, and he proves at practice that he can be a dog,” Uffmann explained. “We tell our players to play free. If you’ve got the green light, you’ve got the green light, as long as it’s in rhythm, it’s a paint touch outside, you’re wide open. He’s got the green light to take that, proud of how he played, but I’m proud of how everybody played.” 

Others scoring for Vintage in the game were Dominic Oram (7 points, 1 rebound), Joey La Monica (5 points, 1 rebound), Rory Holland (4 points, 5 rebounds, 2 blocked shots), Wyatt Rohrs (2 points, 3 rebounds, blocked shot), Anthony Willmert (2 points, 2 rebounds), and Evan Rosette (1 point, 2 rebounds).  

Both teams will continue league play on Thursday at 7 pm. Justin-Siena will remain at home when it hosts Petaluma. Vintage will continue the road games when they visit American Canyon. 

In other VVAL action Tuesday night, Napa beat Petaluma 43-36, and Casa Grande beat Sonoma Valley 54-42.