NAPA, CA - The Napa girls' basketball team beat visiting Armijo 58-55 at Messner Gym on Tuesday night. Coming in Napa beat Vacaville 58-37, and Armijo beat Will C. Wood in blowout fashion 59-27.
Napa led 15-14 after one quarter, Armijo nudged ahead 29-24 by half and Napa seized the lead back 45-38 after three.
The play that changed the game was with 2:05 left in the third quarter when Kira Wilson reached in on Alexa Blunt to give Napa two free throws, but then after the play she slammed the ball on the ground to get her a technical foul. It ended up being a five-point play as Blunt went 2-for-2 from the line and Riley Pridmore made 1-for-2 from the line. Then Napa scored on the ensuing inbound play on a jumper by Gianna Gagetta. Suddenly Napa led 43-36.
"The technical definitely was a momentum changer -- we made three of our four free throws, so that definitely helped us, but I thought we put ourselves in good position," Napa coach Darci Ward said.
Down the stretch Napa was up 56-55 with 40.4 seconds left when leading scorer Madison Van Zandt added two more points. She finished with 13 points and 14 rebounds. A timeout by Armijo with 4.2 seconds left led to a 3-point attempt, but it missed the mark.
Pridmore who had nine points, said: “I feel like we kind of got off to a rough start, but at halftime we talked to each other and said let’s pick it up, let’s play as a team, and stay positive with each other”.
Napa is next at crosstown rival Vintage on Thursday at 7 p.m.
“You can never count anyone out/ We're expecting to win, hoping to win, but you really have to just focus on the game at hand, and that’s kind of what we did not do tonight," Ward said. "I feel like this game will get us more focused and ready."
