By MARTY JAMES martyjames.sports@gmail.com

Jerard Jackson scored 17 points to lead the Napa Valley College men's basketball team and Chris Farrington had 14 points, but the Storm lost its Bay Valley Conference game at home on Friday, Feb. 2 to Mendocino College-Ukiah, 85-66.

With his parents looking on, Jackson, a freshman guard, got off to a great start, hitting three 3-pointers in the first half. Jackson led the Storm (2-21 overall, 2-9 Bay Valley Conference) with five 3-pointers.

"He does a great job of knocking down shots. He's our best catch and shoot shooter, especially during conference play," said coach Steve Ball. "He just caught a cold spell in the second half when they made those runs. With Chris Farrington on the floor, you're going to get a second look, so you don't need to take the first one.

"But he's been shooting the heck out of the ball. His parents came tonight from Southern California to watch him play. I think he was fired up to start the game, to do that and play in front of his family, which is great."

Jackson is averaging 7.0 points per game for Napa Valley, which lost its second game in a row and is in last place in the nine-team conference.

Eight players scored for Napa Valley, which continues to get solid all-around play from Farrington, a freshman guard. He scored nine points in the second half.

"Chris is making us go right now when we're having runs," said Ball.

Farrington is averaging 12.6 points, 5.7 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game.

Jamari Taylor, a freshman guard, is another player that the Storm is getting good play from. Taylor scored nine points in the game against Mendocino (11-11 overall, 7-3 Bay Valley Conference).

"Defensively, I think Jamari Taylor is doing a great job. He comes off the bench right now and he defends the other team's best player. I think he does a good job of it," said Ball.

Jalen Moore scored nine points, going 5-of-5 at the free-throw line.

Oliver Aandahl and Hassan Flemming each had six points. Nate Broome had three points.

The Storm was 13-of-20 at the free-throw line.

Napa Valley was ahead early in the game – 14-7, 17-9 19-16, 20-19, 23-22.

A 10-0 run gave Mendocino a 33-24 lead. Mendocino led at halftime, 35-26.

Farrington had six rebounds and six assists.

Jackson had three rebounds and two steals.

Moore had 13 rebounds, including six on the offensive end.

Raekwon Bell had two rebounds.

Broome had six rebounds.

Ethan Williams had five rebounds.

Taylor had seven rebounds and two steals.

Flemming had six rebounds.

NVC shot 32.4 percent (23-of-71) from the field, 25.0 percent (7-of-28) from the 3-point line, and 65.0 percent (13-of-20) from the free-throw line.

NVC had 53 rebounds, nine assists, five steals and three blocked shots.

"I thought we came out well," said Ball. "It's hard to be in February and still talking about our fundamental defensive concepts are what shoots us in the foot. And then coupled with that, with a very aggressive and competitive Mendocino team, and that's what's going to happen."

Mendocino hit 13 3-pointers and got scoring from 10 players.

Nik Burns scored 25 points and had five 3-pointers to lead Mendocino. Burns was 4-of-4 at the free-throw line.

Ahmad Artis scored 13 points, Darius Ford scored 12 points, Nathan Behr had nine points and Gavin Reid had eight points.

Mendocino had 35 rebounds, 18 assists, seven steals and two blocked shots.

Mendocino shot 43.3 percent (29-of-67) from the field, 37.1 percent from 3-point range (13-of-35), and 66.7 percent (14-of-21) from the free-throw line.

"They're a competitive group," Ball said of Mendocino. "Every single rotation, they want to compete. We didn't match that aggression with our own. And so, they got every 50-50 ball, they got every loose ball. They got too many offensive rebounds. They had a multitude of options every time they penetrated. So, we've just got to be more sound, defensively."

Napa Valley closed the gap to a five-point margin in the second half, trailing 42-37, 47-42, 50-45.

Mendocino used a 9-0 run to take a 19-point lead at 69-50.

"We were short closing a lot, meaning that we're not taking away the 3-point shot. We were playing it safe, which is not aggressive. We've been talking about being aggressive, defensively and offensively, for the past week or so," said Ball.

"You have to commit to it. We're supposed to be aggressive. We're supposed to contest that. And we're supposed to close out hard. We kind of closed out too safely at times, which gave them some looks."

There are five games to go in the 2023-24 regular season for NVC.

The Storm plays at Los Medanos College-Pittsburg on Wednesday, Feb. 7 at 6 p.m.

"We'll talk about (first-place) Yuba when we get to Yuba. But the rest of them, against those teams, we've been in every game that we have left. With a couple of minutes left, it's been a one- or two-possession game against every single team that we played. And if we take a little bit better care of the basketball and we follow our defensive script a little bit longer, I think we can get another one or two coming down the stretch here," said Ball.

* Marty James is a freelance writer who makes his home in Napa. He retired on June 4, 2019 after spending 40 years as a sports writer, sports editor and executive sports editor for the Napa Valley Register, a daily newspaper in Napa County. He is a 1979 graduate of Sacramento State and a member of the California Golf Writers & Broadcasters Association. He was inducted into the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Hall of Fame in 2016, the Vintage High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2019, and the Napa High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2022.