Napa Valley overcomes slow start to beat College of Canyons in Storm Surge semifinal

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By Kyle Foster

kfost91197@gmail.com

Twitter/X: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews 

There are times when a slow start can take you out of the game and make it hard to win. But when you can do all this and still win, it does show some resilience. 

In the 5th annual Storm Surge Tournament, this is what the Napa Valley College women did as they beat College of the Canyons from Santa Clarita, 72-53. 

The Storm (8-2) were able to take control of the game in the third quarter, where they outscored Canyons 24-10. To begin that frame, they also reeled off a quick 6-0 run as part of a larger 9-2 burst to go up 33-29. 

Before this, they also got going in the second quarter thanks to the use of their half-court trap, which forced turnovers to claw back after a rough first quarter. 

“For this game, I think that our half-court trap kind of gets us moving,” Napa Valley College head coach Paul DeBolt explained. “It brings energy to us a little bit, even though we weren’t playing it that well.”  

However, another thing that helped change the game was the fact that shots simply started to fall. They also played with more energy from the second quarter on. 

“I think we knew our energy was really low, so going into the second quarter, we kind of all talked as a team, said, ‘pick it up like we have so much more in us to win this game,’” NVC sophomore Arianna Aguilar explained. “And we did what we said, and we picked it up, and we got the win.”

It also doesn’t help that the slow start has been a regular occurrence this season for NVC. In this game, they also missed a lot of shots early that would’ve made the game a blowout and not even a question early on.

“We get off to slow starts, but it’s okay,” DeBolt added. “The personality is where it takes us a while to get going offensively, and maybe we can change that.” 

Because shots started falling, the Storm ended the game with four players in double-figures. Leading them all was Aguilar. She finished with a team-leading 18 points and 4 rebounds. Aguilar did all of her damage in the second half of the game, and more specifically, the third quarter, where she scored 13 points. She was also the player who got the offense going as a whole in the second half. 

“I feel like, going into the game, I had a little bit of anxiety,” Aguilar said. “I’m not sure why that is sometimes just happens. But going into the second half, I told my teammates, I’ve spoken into existence. ‘I’m gonna go off right now. I’m going to get this team going. We’re gonna get a lead. We’re gonna get some of the bench players getting in.’  It was more of a mental thing.” 

But on top of that, she made four shots from beyond the arc in the game. This is a strong suit of her game and was needed to get everything else going in the game. Aguilar also made 4 of 6 free throws in the game. 

After that, there were a pair of players who ended the night with 11 points. One of them was sophomore Jazmine Fontilla, who scored 9 points in the second half and made 2 of her shots from the free-throw line. 

Freshman Layla Butler was the other player with 11 points while bringing in 3 rebounds. Unlike everyone else, she did the majority of her scoring in the first half with 9 points at the beginning of the game. 

Rounding out the players with double-digits was sophomore Marticia Pollard. She scored 10 points and brought in 4 rebounds. Pollard scored 8 points in the first half and made 4 of 6 free throws.  

Others scoring in the game were Jazelle Bolton (7 points, 5 rebounds), Amiyah Murry (4 points, 10 rebounds), Amya Sims (4 points), Ashley Torres (2 points, 2 rebounds), Kayla Sanchez (2 points), and Camille Abcede (1 point, 3 rebounds). 

With the win, Napa Valley will play for the championship in their tournament at 4 pm on Saturday against Rio Hondo from Los Angeles. 

Prior to that, games will begin at 10 am with San Jose vs Porterville, then at noon, Canyons vs Diablo Valley, followed by Los Medanos vs Siskiyous at 2 pm.