Justin-Siena rides Senior Night run to 47-38 win over Napa
When a team finally gets going, this can be all it takes to win the game. After all, momentum is key.
On Saturday night at Dan Clark Gym, this is what Justin-Siena did as they beat Napa High, 47-38, in a Vine Valley Athletic League contest to end the regular season.
The Braves (14-11 overall, 8-4 VVAL) took control of the game in the third quarter when they went on a massive 15-2 run to gain a 41-28 lead. During this time, they were also knocking down every shot they attempted.
The Braves also just started to play a bit better after hanging around in the first half of the game, when they hadn’t even played their best.
“At halftime, I told them, we probably played some of our worst basketball, and we were in the game,” Justin-Siena head coach Corey Battle explained. “It was a one-point game. They took that energy and started the second half.”
It also helped that Justin-Siena was led by a pair of key scorers in the game.
Leading the way in offense in the contest was senior Asa Hightower. He finished with a game-high of 21 points, four rebounds, and a blocked shot. He scored 13 points in the first half of the game while making three of four free throws.
“He stepped up,” Battle said. “I told him after the Petaluma loss, ‘This is your team. It’s your team. We go as you go.’ And he’s responded. The team has responded. That’s the thing I tell him, because he’s such a quiet guy. He’s so quiet, it’s hard to get it out of him. But I tell him, they will do anything you tell them to do, and he’s seeing that now.”
Also in double figures was fellow senior Dylan Arnold. He scored 14 points in the game, 11 of which came in the third quarter. Arnold also knocked down four shots from the three-point line in the game. He made both free throws in the game, too.
“He’s one of the big two that we had out for a while,” Battle added. “So, Dylan was our second leading scorer, and we had him out for a while because he had an ankle injury and a calf strain. So just getting him back and getting those extra points back helps out so much.”
Arnold has also done all of this without even having fresh legs after battling through some lower leg injuries in the league season.
“I don’t think he has his legs back yet,” Battle pointed out. “As a matter of fact, he’s not even 100%. But just what he can do with the outside shot gives us more than what we had been having before.”
Also scoring in the game for the Braves were Dom Pucci (six points, one rebound, blocked shot), Xiano Ortega (four points, three rebounds), and Alejandro Perryman (two points, three rebounds).
This was also Senior Night for Justin-Siena. They honored five seniors before the tip. Those honored before the game were Hightower, Arnold, Ortega, Collin Moye, and Antione Saleh.
“This group of seniors is talented,” Battle added. “Their leadership is great, because obviously they learn from those ahead of them. They’re just competitive, and they compete.”
As for Napa High (9-17, 6-6 VVAL), they opened up the game fast. They raced out to an 11-2 lead and a 17-6 lead at the end of the first quarter.
“We’ve been working on playing with some tempo and making the extra pass, and that’s kind of how we want to play anyway,” Napa High head coach Carson Carattini said of the first quarter, where his team started fast. “You saw them put it together for a little while there. That doesn’t happen a lot for us. Have those kinds of bursts, those big quarters.”
The Grizzlies also got a nice performance from senior Cris Rendon. He finished with a team-high of 16 points and six rebounds.
Rendon also had a great first half, scoring 14 points. Ten points also came in the first quarter, which he ended with a buzzer-beater from three-quarters court.
“I think locally, Cris is a big, strong kid, and at times, there’s not a lot of guys around here that can guard him,” Carattini added. “So physically, he can get to where he wants to. He’s athletic, he’s strong. He finishes pretty well at the basket.”
Others scoring in the game for Napa High were Will Flynn (seven points, six rebounds, two blocked shots), Henry MacPherson (six points, six rebounds), Jack Cadle (four points), Tideus Chaidez (three points, one rebound) and Asher Mendenhall (two points).
With the win, Justin-Siena snapped Napa’s ten-game winning streak dating back to last season against opponents from Napa County.
Both teams will begin the league tournament on Monday at 7 p.m. Justin-Siena got the No. 2 seed and will host No. 7 Petaluma. Meanwhile, Napa is the No. 4 seed and will host No. 5 American Canyon.
In the previous meetings this season, Justin-Siena beat Petaluma 66-37 on Jan. 15 and lost to Petaluma 59-54 on Feb. 3.
As for Napa, they swept American Canyon this season. They won 57-50 on the road on Jan. 3 and won 43-39 on Jan. 23.
The other game will feature No. 6 Vintage visiting No. 3 Sonoma Valley. Sonoma beat Vintage 48-37 on Saturday.
The other VVAL contest saw American Canyon beat Casa Grande 64-62. Casa Grande is the league winner and gets the bye to Wednesday, when they will host the lowest remaining seed in a semifinal.
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