The game of the night in the Vine Valley Athletic League was in Petaluma, but the spotlight was in Napa as it was a battle of first vs second place.
Vintage 70 Sonoma Valley 63
Sonoma Valley led by seven after one period, and built their lead to 10 by the first half’s end, but a 24-11 third quarter blitz by Vintage put them up three heading into the fourth. Imani Lopez and Logan Nothmann pulled them to within five, while Dom Girish for Sonoma kept the Dragons afloat. Vintage tied the game a few times in the third, the first time on a Nothmann three pointer. Girish came right back with one of his own to put the Dragons back up three.
Luke Sendaydiego would hit a three to put Sonoma up by six, 45-39,but Nothmann hit another shot, and down five again, Josh McCormick hit a three to bring the Crushers to within two. Luke Williams tied the game up for the second time in the period. After Riley Phelan put the Dragons in front, McCormick hit a three to put the Crushers in front 49-48, and for the first lead since they led 5-4 early on. Lopez ended the period with a basket to put Vintage up 51-48.
Sonoma Valley trailed by three with a minute to play in the game, but had to play the foul game. Anders Mathis had just hit a three for the Dragons to cut the deficit to 66-63. Nothmann and Ethan Hemmerlin were each two for two from the free throw line to pull out the win.
Lopez led all scorers with 24 points, with Nothman adding 14 points, and McCormick with 11 for Vintage. Dom Girish led Sonoma Valley with 21 points.
Vintage retains their half game lead in the VVAL standings, sitting at 8-2 in league play, and 15-9 overall. They are @ Napa on Friday, and @ American Canyon the following Friday to close out the season.
Sonoma drops to 14-9 overall, and 6-3 in league play. They host Justin Siena on Friday, and American Canyon on Wednesday, then head to Casa Grande next Friday.
Petaluma 60 Casa Grande 57
Petaluma held off a Casa Grande surge that had them on their tails the entire night for a 60-57 win over their crosstown rivals.
Ryan Sullivan hit a corner three to give Petaluma the lead, and the win. Casa Grande had tied the game on a Rashad Nixon free throw. Alex Siedler missed four straight free throws for Petaluma, but they still had the last laugh.
Petaluma raced out to a 10-2 lead early, but Tai Grant and Sonny Gigliotti would not make it easy for the Trojans as they brought it to within 10-9, but Ryan Giacomini hit a pair from the foul line, and Liam Gotschall grabbed a steal and scored near the buzzer for a 14-9 Petaluma lead after one.
Casa Grande trailed 22-13 in the second quarter, but quietly marched back behind Nixon, and Dom McHale, who cut it to just a 24-23 Petaluma lead. Cole Garzoli finished out the first half strong for Petaluma hitting one inside as the Trojans held a 28-25 halftime advantage.
The pace and scoring would pick up in the third quarter, as did Casa Grande themselves. Trailing 30-25, Gigliotti hit back to back shots to tie it, and Ryan Mcquinn scored, and was fouled to put the Gauchos up three, which got the Casa 6th man fired up. Tory Cain would hit back to back shots himself and within a span of three minutes, Casa Grande had a 38-30 lead.
Gigliotti banged home another three for Casa Grande to put them up 41-37, and the teams traded blows. Siedler put Petaluma up 44-43 with under 10 seconds to go in the quarter, but Gigliotti dropped one in from half court that you had a feeling was going in as soon as it left his hands, and the Gauchos led 46-44 after three.
Down 50-45, Petaluma would go on a 10-0 run, lef by Ivan Cortes, who scored six of them. He tied the game with a three, and then extended his team’s lead up to five with three the old fashioned way. Casa would score six of their final seven points in succession, all on free throws. Cain, McHale, and Nixon combined to go 6 for 7 from the foul line in the final stanza.
Petaluma was led by Ryan Sullivan who had 13 points, and Alex Siedler who had eight points.
Sonny Gigliotti led all scorers with 14 points, with Tory Cain scoring 12, Rashad Nixon 10, and McHale eight points.
Petaluma remains a half game back of Vintage at 7-2 in VVAL play. Petaluma hosts American Canyon on Friday, goes to Napa on Wednesday and hosts Justin Siena next Friday.
Casa Grande will host Alhambra in a non league game on Saturday before hosting Justin Siena and Sonoma Valley in their final games.
American Canyon 66 Napa 51
American Canyon stayed in the thick of the VVAL race by taking down Napa 66-51. The Wolves are 2.5 games back of Vintage for first.
This one was tied after one, and American Canyon held a 33-25 advantage at the half with the help of seven straight points from Oliver Aandahl.
EJ Alviz gave the Wolves their largest lead of the night up to just three minutes into the third period, 41-26 before Napa had called a timeout. Before it was all said and done, Maximilian Parmigiani had one upped Alviz, making it a 19 point lead at 49-30 after three.
American Canyon is on the road @ Petaluma, and @ Sonoma Valley, before closing with Vintage at home.
Napa hosts Vintage on Friday, before closing their season hosting Petaluma next Wednesday.
