Santa Rosa—Consistency is key in any team sport, especially basketball. The 2015-2016 Mariners are finding that out the hard way after the team's performance at the 40th Annual Kris Kringle Invitational, hosted by Santa Rosa Junior College.
Marin played in the very first game of the tournament on Thursday afternoon in a matchup against American River College. The Mariners started out quickly with an 11-0 run against the Beavers and never looked back controlling the entire game. Brandon Barrett posted his best game on the season, hitting five three-pointers on his way to 19 points. Noah Everly went 7-8 from the field for 18 points and Keiland Callum turned in 17 points of his own in the 83-69 victory for the College of Marin. Marin shot 68% from the field as a team and played stout defense, forcing 14 turnovers.
On Friday evening the Mariners faced off against the Moorpark Raiders with a chance to head to the championship game. Moorpark had won 4 in a row coming into the game with hard fought victories over Fresno and City College of San Francisco. For as well as Marin had played the night before they looked lost on both ends of the court early on against Moorpark. The Raiders opened a 9-2 lead on Marin before Coach Collins called a timeout to refocus his squad. Marin responded well out of the timeout, pulling the game to within at 13-10. However, that's as close as the Mariners would come for the rest of the night. Moorpark's press interfered with Marin's offensive rhythm and the resulting confusion carried its way onto the defensive end. Marin trailed by as many as 25 in the second half before narrowing the deficit to 17 by the final buzzer, 88-71. Keiland Callum notched a new season high in points at 25, George Johnson had 16 and Ty Davis contributed 15 points in the loss.
In the third place game on Saturday evening Marin faced a familiar foe, Bay Valley Conference rival Napa. Napa had the biggest upset of the tournament, knocking off the previously undefeated, and top-ranked team in Northern California, Feather River College. For the second straight night Marin looked sluggish on the floor, trailing Napa 33-32 at the half. Turnovers and defensive miscues kept Marin from putting together a solid string of possessions. Napa turned those miscues into points, and more importantly a win. Despite a late comeback attempt Marin fell at the hands of Napa, 69-66. Noah Everly had 20 points in the loss.
Marin dropped to 6-7 on the year following the back-to-back losses. Marin will have a chance at revenge in their next game—a rematch against the Storm at Napa, January 5th, 2016.