NVC men's basketball headed to Northern California Regionals
By MARTY JAMES
Napa Valley College, which won two straight games to end the Bay Valley Conference men's basketball season, is headed to the playoffs.
The Storm was installed as the No. 24 seed and will travel to Sonora on Wednesday, Feb. 25 to face Columbia College in the first round of the 2026 California Community College Athletic Association Northern California Regionals. It's a 7 p.m. start with Napa Valley taking on No. 9 seed Columbia.
The 24-team field for the NorCal Regionals is led by No. 1 seed City College of San Francisco, which has a first-round bye.
Also, drawing a first-round bye:
No. 2 seed Santa Rosa Junior College, No. 3 seed West Valley College-Saratoga, No. 4 seed San Jose City College, No. 5 seed Modesto Junior College, No. 6 seed Yuba College-Marysville, No. 7 seed Las Positas College-Livermore, No. 8 seed Cosumnes River College-Sacramento.
Napa Valley (12-16 overall, 8-8 Bay Valley Conference) finished in sixth place in the Bay Valley, and ended the season with wins over College of Alameda, 72-66, and Contra Costa College-San Pablo, 71-69.
"It just shows our commitment to resiliency," Storm coach Steve Ball said on Monday. "The fact that this group has had plenty of adversity throughout the season due to injuries and other things, we just continue to make pursuit.
"We're doing a great job of listening to a scouting report defensively and doing what we do with some grit on the defensive side. Some guys have been really stepping up with their scoring output, namely Jayden Russotti and AJ Loustau. The last game or two, they have really stepped up.
"We're going to need all hands-on deck for this next one, though, because Columbia is quite a team."
Columbia (23-5 overall, 13-1 Central Valley Conference) tied for the conference title and is 9-1 over its last 10 games.
"They've got quite a few scorers, guys who can shoot the basketball, and they're one of the better rebounding teams. We're going to have to have a gang effort on the defensive glass."
It's the first time that Napa Valley has reached the playoffs under Ball, who is in his 21st year as the Storm's head coach.
"We're excited about that," said Ball. "We've got to play each one of them. Sometimes, dealing with that adversity helps us. It tests your character. And this group, responded well with that."
The Storm ended the 2025-26 regular season, getting a game-winning shot at the buzzer from AJ McCoy to beat Contra Costa, 71-69, on the team's "Sophomore Night."
Loustau scored 23 points, going 5-of-5 from the free-throw line.
Russotti scored 18 points, with two 3-pointers and going 4-of-4 from the free-throw line.
McCoy scored eight points, going 6-of-7 from the free-throw line.
Kieran Mannion scored eight points, with two 3-pointers.
Kenny Brown had seven points and E'Jay Rogers had five points.
"It was do-or-die time," Ball pointed out. "When it's one or two possessions left, this team is able to focus in and harness all of their efforts and not be distracted by the noise and take care of those little details.
"When it comes toward the end of a game like that, we just value having possession of the basketball. I think that's what we showed against Santa Rosa early in the season, that when we value the possession, we get high percentage shots."
The Storm is averaging 71.9 points per game on 40.7 percent shooting from the field, 32.1 percent from 3-point range, and 69.0 percent from the free-throw line. They are averaging 37.4 rebounds per game and 13.9 assists per game.
Russotti is averaging 17.3 points and 4.1 rebounds per game.
Loustau is averaging 11.8 points, 6.9 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game.
Kenny Brown is averaging 11.2 points and 5.0 rebounds per game.
The winner of NVC-Columbia advances to play Cosumnes River-Sacramento on Saturday, Feb. 28.
In other first round NorCal Regional games on Wednesday, Feb. 25:
* No. 16 Foothill-Los Altos Hills-No. 17 Butte-Oroville.
* No. 21 Los Medanos-Pittsburg-No. 12 Cabrillo-Aptos.
* No. 20 Merritt-Oakland-No. 13 Feather River-Quincy.
* No. 15 College of Marin-Kentfield-No. 18 Canada-Redwood City.
* No. 10 Sierra-Rocklin-No. 23 College of the Redwoods-Eureka.
* No. 11 College of the Sequoias-Visalia-No. 22 San Joaquin Delta-Stockton.
* No. 14 Contra Costa-San Pablo-No. 19 College of San Mateo.
The Southern California Regionals are led by No. 1 seed Fullerton College and No. 2 seed Citrus College-Glendora.
The 3C2A Championships are March 13-15 at College of the Sequoias.
* 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.