Hot start fuels Napa Valley College men to 79-59 win over Hartnell

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Freshman Jayden Russotti of the Napa Valley College Storm men's basketball team drives to the bucket on Dec. 9. Kyle Foster photo — Freshman Jayden Russotti of the Napa Valley College Storm men’s basketball team drives to the bucket on Dec. 9. *Kyle Foster photo*

Sometimes winning is as simple as just making more shots than the other team and doing what you do on defense. It’s even nicer when this simple approach pays off.

On Tuesday night, the Napa Valley College (NVC) men’s basketball team beat Hartnell-Salinas 79-59 at Storm Gym.

Napa Valley (4-7) took control of the game thanks to some hot shooting early in the game, which was due in large part to aggressively attacking the bucket. By using this, the Storm were able to take a 39-24 lead into the break.

“The aggressiveness, I feel like, in practice, we’ve been a lot more focused on getting to that rim, aggressively, not worrying about who is in front of us, is ensuring that we’re a stronger team,” Napa Valley College sophomore guard E’Jay Rogers explained what led to the hot start. “We know we can get there; it’s just finishing everything. So just being more aggressive in practice that leads to the game every time. Every time we put more emphasis in practice, the next game is always more beneficial.”

Out of the half, Hartnell (1-12) came out with energy and went on a 6-0 run to bring them within 8 points. It took a while for the Storm to match that energy. A 7-1 scoring bust by Napa Valley got their lead back to 15, which would be more than enough to finish off the victory.

Napa Valley College sophomore guard E’Jay Rogers takes the ball down court against Hartnell on Dec. 9. Kyle Foster photo

Kieran Mannion of the Napa Valley College Storm men's basketball drives to the basket on Dec. 9. Kyle Foster photo — Napa Valley College sophomore guard E’Jay Rogers takes the ball down court against Hartnell on Dec. 9. Kyle Foster photo

Napa Valley College men's basketball player AJ Loustau hit double-digit points scored in the win against Hartnell. Kyle Foster photo — Napa Valley College men’s basketball player AJ Loustau hit double-digit points scored in the win against Hartnell. *Kyle Foster photo*

“There’s only two sides of the ledger, right?” Napa Valley College head coach Steve Ball said. “We ended up on the correct side tonight. There’s no ugly win. Credit to Hartnell. They started the second half with a lot more energy than we did and played there for most of the second half. I think it wasn’t until about the seven-minute mark where we started to pull away a little bit more. I’m happy that everybody got in, everybody contributed, and there’s just a team win.”

Rogers also made a pair of threes at the beginning of the game. He was feeling in rhythm from the start.

“It’s just one of those things where you don’t even think about it, just kind of happens,” Rogers explained of his nice start to the contest. “You let the ball fly, and it does what it does.”

Another thing that was key to NVC winning the game was the fact that they had a trio of scorers in double figures.

“I think it says a lot about the depth and also our confidence in each other,” Rogers added. “I think there’s a group of guys that we’re all able to go on… do what we have to do, but we’re able to put that trust in one another, and that really helps us along the way.”

Leading them all in the contest was Rogers. He finished with a team-leading 18 points, 3 rebounds, and a blocked shot. Rogers got off to a fast start in the contest, scoring 10 of the first 14 points for the Storm on the way to ending the first half with a total of 12 points. He made 1 of 2 free throws and hit three 3-pointers.

“When he’s playing with aggression or assertiveness, he’s very good,” Ball explained. “As evidenced by, I think he scored the first 10 points of the game for us tonight, or 10 of the first 12. But he was, he was aggressively getting downhill, aggressively looking for his spots, looking for his shots, and did an amazing job with that. And then on the flip side of it, he was guarding the other team’s best player for most of the first half as well.”

Also finishing in double-digits in the game was AJ Loustau. The freshman finished with 14 points and 8 rebounds. He also scored 8 points in the second half and made both of his free throws.

“AJ, he sees the floor well,” Ball pointed out. “He’s six (feet), eight (inches). We play him at the point guard most nights. When we go double big, when we go with Andrew (Degirolamo) at the same time, we’re able to slide him over to the point guard position because he can make good decisions. He can see over most traps, and he’s (very) strong, and he’ll be a recruitable athlete for sure, and we just need to get him to play as consistently as he can. If he meets his potential, then we can be really good in conference play.”

Rounding out the trio was Jayden Russotti. The freshman ended the night with 12 points and 3 rebounds. He scored 7 points in the first half while also making 2 shots from deep in the game. He could’ve had a bigger night had his night not ended halfway through the first half when he rolled his right ankle, which he had already injured this season.

Others scoring for Napa Valley in the game were Kieran Mannion (9 points, 2 rebounds), Andrew Degirollamo (8 points, 3 rebounds), AJ McCoy (6 points, 3 rebounds), Max Hernandez (6 points, 2 rebounds), Jayden Robinson (4 points, 8 rebounds), and Russell Gibson (2 points, 3 rebounds).

With the win, the Storm have also broken a three-game losing streak that they were mired in before the contest. The win was much-needed as conference play gets closer. They have also had five single-digit losses to this point of the season, meaning that they have been in it in pretty much every game they have played.

Napa Valley will be back in action on Monday at 12 p.m. when they host College of Canyons from Santa Clarita.