By MARTY JAMES martyjames.sports@gmail.com
Rose Jamison scored a career-high 37 points and the Napa Valley College women's basketball team snapped a five-game losing streak, beating Diablo Valley College-Pleasant Hill, 72-52, in a first-round game of the fourth annual Storm Surge on Thursday night.
It was also the first win at home for Napa Valley (3-6 overall), which went on a 21-0 run in the first quarter and a 9-0 run in the second quarter of the nonconference game.
Jamison, a sophomore guard, scored 16 points in the first quarter, powering host Napa Valley to a 27-8 lead. It was a double-double for Jamison, who also had 16 rebounds.
"Rose is a great all-around player. Just a very high basketball IQ," Napa Valley head coach Paul DeBolt said. "She scores at all three levels. Smart defender. Superb rebounder. She's somebody you want on your basketball team."
Jamison surpassed her previous career high of 36 points in a nonconference win over Sacramento City College on Nov. 6. She was granted a medical redshirt after being limited to playing in only three games last year due to a knee injury. Jamison, who is in her third year in the program, had surgery on her left knee on Aug. 16, 2023.
"I was just finding my open spots, getting what I could, shooting when I was open, finding my teammates when I could, just trying to play all-around," said Jamison.
She had an outstanding freshman season for the Storm, as she averaged 15.8 points, 8.9 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game, and was a unanimous first-team All-Bay Valley Conference selection during the 2022-23 season. She was also named to the California Community College Women's Basketball Coaches Association 2022-23 All-Academic Team.
"She's healthy. She's playing hard," said DeBolt. "She's really starting to understand how to put 3's, mid-range and shots at the basket together, to have a great offensive resume."
Jamison led five players in scoring as Napa Valley got off to a fast start, dominating the first quarter of play. She had two 3-pointers in the opening quarter. She was very active around the basket, making great passes, defending and rebounding.
"We were just playing together as a team, running up and down together, finding each other when we were open," said Jamison, who was 9-of-12 from the free-throw line. "We were all just clicking on all cylinders.
"This game, that was our main goal, to just get off fast and play fast and play our game. That's been the emphasis the last few games, because we've been starting off our game slow, getting down early."
Despite losing to Mission College-Santa Clara last week, the Storm played much better in the second half, outscoring the Saints, 47-32.
"It feels great, especially snapping our losing streak and finally getting a win. It's a great boost to the team morale. Just all-around great win," said Jamison.
Six players scored for Napa Valley, the host of the eight-team, three-day preseason invitational tournament. Arianna Aguilar scored 13 points and Marticia Pollard scored 10 points for the Storm, which had five 3-pointers and was 13-of-19 from the free-throw line. Aguilar had two 3-pointers.
"We determined going into the second half against Mission, just to speed things up a little bit. And we had a great week of practice, speeding things up. We had a great second half (against Mission)," said DeBolt. "We came out kind of where we left off, in the first half tonight, just looking for open players and
making the extra pass, trying to get assists, trying to get shots closer to the basket, and then shooting 3's in the rhythm of our offense," said DeBolt.
Jazmine Fontilla had six points, Kamilah Tiongco had four points and Helena White had two points.
"The last few games when we lost, we were going down early in the first quarter, and we definitely wanted to focus a lot on defense in the first quarter for this game," said Jamison. "It was mostly just us moving on all cylinders and definitely we were focusing on defense."
Napa Valley was up on Diablo Valley at halftime, 44-23, and took a 55-38 lead into the fourth quarter. The Storm scored points in transition and in the half court, using a passing game with very solid ball distribution.
"We definitely wanted to end our losing streak, especially going into our (Bay Valley Conference) games. We want to definitely ride that through into our league games," said Jamison. "I think really our main emphasis was just playing together, playing fast and running a lot in transition. I think we definitely executed that tonight."
The Storm played without Ashley Torres for most of the game. She left the game due to an injury to her eye.
Napa Valley was ahead by 28 points at 36-8 in the second quarter. Diablo Valley came back in the fourth quarter, cutting the Storm's lead to 12 points, 60-48, with 5:32 to go.
DVC (2-7 overall) was led by Te'Niyah Lindsey with 20 points, Adrianna Surney with 12 points, Kendall McClure with nine points and Tegan Gaines with eight points.
"I credit (DVC). They made some adjustments. They got some layups. They made some 3's. They were playing a little loose, and we just needed to bear down and get better shots. And we did. I was proud of our team for just persevering through that part of the game," said DeBolt.
Napa Valley will play two more games in its Storm Surge. NVC has 12 nonconference games on its schedule. The 16-game Bay Valley Conference season begins on Dec. 17.
Napa Valley has a second-round game on Friday against Foothill College-Los Altos Hills at 6 p.m.
"Hopefully, we can just keep playing well," said DeBolt. "They're starting to kind of understand what we want them to do. They're starting to fall into some roles, and they're improving. They're getting better. We played better together tonight. That was the key. We had struggled to play together."
In other opening round games of the Storm Surge:
* San Jose City College beat Porterville College, 90-49.
* College of the Siskiyous-Weed beat Gavilan College-Gilroy, 83-27.
* Foothill College-Los Altos Hills beat Contra Costa College-San Pablo, 76-38.
In Friday's second-round games:
* Porterville College and Gavilan College play at 12 p.m.
* Contra Costa and DVC play at 2 p.m.
* San Jose City and Siskiyous play at 4 p.m.
* Napa Valley and Foothill play at 6 p.m.
Final-round games on Saturday, Dec. 14 start at 10 a.m., 12, 2 and 4 p.m.
San Jose City is No. 19 in the latest California Community College Women's Basketball Coaches Association State Top 25 Rankings, announced in a report on Dec. 10 by the California Community College Athletic Association, at www.cccaasports.org.
* 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.