Coach Steve Ball talks to his team during its pregame about playing hard and smart and together for 40 minutes.

“Tonight we did it for about 12 (minutes),” said Ball. “That’s not enough. That’s not 40.”

Napa Valley College’s early second-half run was about tough man-to-man defense more than anything, but the Storm couldn’t make it last in a 65-56 nonconference loss Sunday to College of the Redwoods-Eureka in the consolation championship game of the Wine Country Classic, a men’s basketball tournament.

Napa Valley (4-3 overall) was behind by eight points, 33-25 at halftime. The Storm tied it at 36-all on a shot by Tyler Dixon. Two free throws by Aaron Trigg gave Napa a 38-36 lead with 13:31 to go.

Trigg, who had 11 points, completed a three-point play with 12:04 showing, giving the Storm a 41-39 edge. Ashton Foster, who led the Storm with 19 points, hit a basket to increase Napa’s lead to 43-39 with 10:51 remaining.

The lead stayed at four points (45-41) as Trigg made two free throws with 10:22 left. Foster’s follow-up of a miss gave the Storm a 48-46 advantage with 8:09 to play.

Redwoods went on a 6-0 run to assume a 52-48 lead.

“When you’re down, it’s hard to get back up ahead of somebody,” said Ball. “It takes a lot of energy. It’s hard to paddle upstream. We didn’t have as much left in the tank if we would have been tied with them at the half or if the game was a little closer at the half.

“We had to just work a little bit harder and execute a little bit tighter.”

Napa’s second-half start was due to playing with the kind of energy that Ball wants his team to use for all 40 minutes.

“We need to tighten up our execution a little bit at times and I think we need to play more consistent defensively like we did in the first 10 minutes of the second half,” said Ball, whose team opens play in the Cosumnes River Tournament Friday in Sacramento against San Jose City College.

“We need to play that defense for 40 minutes.”

The Storm tied it, 54-54 with 4:24 to go. But Redwoods outscored Napa 9-0.

Scott Sewell scored eight points, Tyler Dixon had six and Kip Kendall had five. Napa Valley was 3-of-13 on 3-point shooting and it was 9-of-15 at the free-throw line.

Tim Pratt scored 20 points to lead Redwoods. Renell Gary and Dom Brinson each had 10 points, Eli Graham had nine and Matthew Millar had five.

Redwoods made 7-of-9 from 3-point distance.

A 1-2 record in its own tournament was displeasing, Ball said.

“I told my guys that we failed,” he said. “Our goal every weekend is 2-1 or better. If we don’t reach that goal, we fail.

“You can make reasons or excuses, but we just didn’t get it done.”

In Saturday’s second round, Trigg scored the game-winning basket with 4.5 seconds to go, lifting Napa over DeAnza-Cupertino, 73-72. Sewell had 18 points, Trigg scored 16 points and Luigi Valencia had 13.

Napa was ahead by 18 points in the first half, but relinquished the lead with 18 seconds to play.

In Saturday’s other games, it was Chabot-Hayward over Modesto JC, 90-75, and College of the Siskiyous-Weed over Santa Rosa JC, 74-73, as Alden Gibbs hit the winning basket with 4.5 seconds to play.

Chabot (No. 8), Modesto (10) and Santa Rosa (12) all came into the tournament with Northern California rankings.

Meanwhile, in Sunday’s championship game, Siskiyous beat Chabot, 75-53. Gibbs scored 19 points for Siskiyous and Kevin Tyler had nine for Chabot.

Gibbs was chosen as the tournament MVP. Chabot’s Jourdan Demuynck and Siskiyous’ Brian Cummings, who scored 18 points, were named All-Tournament.

Santa Rosa took the third-place game, beating Modesto, 82-72. Gerrell Knightshead had 22 points for Santa Rosa and Sam Yeager’s 24 led Modesto. Both Yeager and Knightshead were named All-Tournament.

Redwoods’ Pratt was also named All-Tournament.