Steve Ball isn’t using rust as an excuse.

A lack of intensity is more like it, the Napa Valley College men’s basketball coach said.

Playing for the first time since Dec. 28, the Storm fell behind by 23 points in the first half and lost its Bay Valley Conference game at home Wednesday night to Mendocino College-Ukiah, 66-51.

Chad Lichau had 11 points and Andy Medeiros finished with nine for Napa Valley (10-10 overall, 1-2 BVC), which used a turnover-forcing three-quarter court trapping game to bring itself back and close the gap to seven points in the second half at 47-40 following a free throw by Ashton Foster with 9:05 to go.

“We didn’t have the intensity that we need,” said Ball. “We try to set some goals, but I think the most important goal is to win the game in front of you.

“We did make a good run, but it’s kind of like swimming upstream. You put yourself in that position, it’s a lot harder. Once you expend all that energy to make a run you still find yourself seven points down, it’s tiring.”

Napa Valley got right back in it, outscoring Mendocino 6-0 to start the second half on two baskets by Foster and a shot by Medeiros as the Storm made it an 11-point game at 40-29 with 18:22 remaining.

“I think we just woke up, I think we decided to compete,” said Ball, whose team played in several tournaments in the preseason. “I think in the first half we didn’t want to compete. We thought that since they’d only won two games all season that we were just going to show up and win. And that doesn’t happen in the Bay Valley Conference. Absolutely does not happen in the Bay Valley Conference.”

Foster and Matt Jenkins each had seven points for Napa Valley, which later used an 11-2 run to cut Mendocino’s lead to seven points. But that was as close as the Storm would get on a night when the offense struggled and not a lot went right.

“I thought that we got the game at our tempo at that point,” said Ball. “We were moving the basketball up the court, we were rebounding well and pushing it, causing some turnovers and increasing the speed of the game, which is what we want to do. We were playing at that tempo and we were making some mistakes at that tempo, too, which are uncharacteristic of our guys.”

Mendocino outscored Napa in one stretch 10-1 to move out to a 57-41 lead.

“Once they got the ball across half court they re-set their offense and we couldn’t switch gears mentally to say, we were just in our trap, now we’re in half court man to man defense,” said Ball. “There’s a different level of pressure that you’re supposed to apply in those two defenses, and we didn’t make that adjustment in the first half.”

Napa Valley scored 23 points and trailed by 17 at the half, 40-23. Four players — Aaron Trigg, James Crockett, Medeiros and Lichau — led the Storm with four points each in the opening half.

Mendocino’s Canyon Miller led all scorers with 22 points, hitting three 3-point baskets. Josh Gipson had nine points, Jordan Monroe had eight, and with six each were Craig Bernardi and Zack Corns.

Was Napa’s offense unproductive because of the long layoff?

“We have to come out and compete,” Ball said. “I think it had to do with our level of focus, more so than the rust. I don’t think we were ready to compete and we didn’t have that mental edge, that intensity that you need to have to have that acute look at the basket.”

Napa Valley continues its busy week with BVC road games starting Friday at Contra Costa College-San Pablo (7 p.m.), followed by Saturday’s game at College of Marin-Kentfield (5 p.m.). It’s a 16-game conference season.

Yuba Community College-Marysville (18-2) leads the BVC.