For the second straight week, Napa Valley College finished as the runner-up in a men’s preseason basketball tournament. But Steve Ball, the Storm’s head coach, is far from upset.

“I’m very proud of the way that they’ve been playing this season so far,” Ball said after the Storm’s 82-64 loss to Chabot College-Hayward in the championship game of NVC’s Wine Country Classic on Sunday.. “They’re a fun group to watch. I just hope that we can continue to develop our execution to mirror our energy.”

The loss snapped Napa Valley’s two-game winning streak and puts the Storm at 4-4 overall with three more tournaments still to go before the start of the Bay Valley Conference season.

Andy Medeiros scored 17 points with three 3-point baskets, Matt Jenkins had 14 points, and Chad Lichau, a former Justin-Siena High School star, finished with 10 points for Napa, which trailed 35-22 at halftime and gave up 17 offensive rebounds.

James Crockett, who scored five points, joined Lichau on the All-Tournament team.

Back-to-back three-point plays capped a 7-0 run, pulling Napa Valley within 12 points of Chabot at 46-34 with 13:05 to go. The Storm’s 6-0 surge cut Chabot’s lead to nine points at 50-41 at the 10:02 mark following baskets by Medeiros and Deandre Clark and two free throws by Medeiros.

“We’re very happy, but we’re not satisfied,” said Ball. “We say that to the guys all the time and we talk about the big picture. For us to go back to back and make the final day, in the big picture if we keep plugging away at it, we’re going to get us one.”

Chabot went on a 12-0 run to move in front by 21 points at 62-41. The Gladiators made 11 3-point baskets and were led by Jared Bell with 15 points, Kevin Potts with 13, Meka Ezekwesili with 12 and Josh Miller with 10.

Alex Mallari, who had eight points, was chosen MVP and named to the All-Tournament team for Chabot. Chris Woodbury was also selected All-Tournament.

“We didn’t really do a good job of competing on the defensive glass,” said Ball. “When you give up 17 offensive rebounds, that’s 17 extra possessions for them. We gave up too many easy baskets.

“In the second half I thought we did a better job of attacking our own misses than we had in the first half. I think that gave us a lot of energy. You saw the energy that they get from their offensive rebounds. We started to do the same to them in the second half and it built a little bit of energy for us.”

Chabot used an 8-0 run to build a 32-17 lead in the first half. Derieck Moseby and Jawon Mack each had seven points and Paki Brown added six for Chabot.

For Napa Valley, Ashton Foster and Max Frise each scored five points and Clark added four.

Napa’s offense involves a lot of screening, but the Storm needs to do a better job of executing it, said Ball.

“It’s hard to defend and teams don’t want to defend it,” he said. “When you make them defend it, it takes their energy away because it’s not easy to guard.”

The Storm advanced into the finals of its own tournament by beating Cañada College-Redwood City, 62-49, in the semifinals on Saturday night. Chabot beat College of the Siskiyous-Weed in overtime, 88-78, in the other semifinal game.

Napa Valley made some adjustments at the break, instituting trapping in the halfcourt.

“We didn’t do that great of a job on the glass,” said Ball. “So what we had to do was cause turnovers in the backcourt before they could get a shot up.”

Chabot was 16 of 24 from the free-throw line and Napa Valley went 19-of-30.

Tom Higgins of College of the Redwoods-Eureka and Roland Johnson of Siskiyous were also named All-Tournament.

In earlier games Sunday, Redwoods beat Gavilan College-Gilroy 80-77 for fifth place and Siskiyous beat Cañada 62-40 for third place.

The Storm starts play in the Cosumnes River Tournament in Sacramento Friday.