Middletown, Lower Lake claim league openers while Knights, Cards, Cougars come up short
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CLOVERDALE >> In a matchup of last year’s North Central League I co-champions, the Middletown Mustangs proved they can win even with star Mia Hoogendoorn in foul trouble as the Mustangs knocked off the Eagles 44-35 in the league opener for both teams Tuesday night in Cloverdale.
Hoogendoorn played the entire fourth quarter with four fouls but still scored nine of her team-leading 16 points down the stretch as the Mustangs improved to 5-1 on the season. The senior sat nearly the entire second quarter with three fouls and missed another chunk of time in the third quarter after picking up her fourth foul. She returned to the court to start the fourth quarter.
After Cloverdale opened the final period with a Izabella Sanchez basket to get as close as 31-29, Hoogendoorn made up for lost time by burying a 3-pointer. Jordyn Harbison’s layup made it 36-29 with 5:31 left. Gissell Bucio answered for the Eagles seconds later.
The Mustangs began to pull away at that point. Hoogendoorn rolled in a one-handed, off-balance runner and Amara Galvan scored for Cloverdale to make it 38-33. Hoogendoorn drew shooting fouls on each of Middletown’s next two possession, one of those a 3-point attempt, and sank four of five free throws to increase Middletown’s lead to 42-33, its biggest of the game, with 2:29 remaining. Camryn Donahoo’s basket got the Eagles back within seven with time running out, but a Harbison steal led to a Harley Holley putback of a Hoogendoorn miss to finish off Cloverdale.
Certainly key to the Mustangs’ win, besides Hoogendoorn’s nine fourth-quarter points, were 11 points from Holley, who also finished the game with four fouls, and another nine points from Jaylee Doris, the unsung hero for Middletown, especially when Hoogendoorn was absent from the court.
“Best game she’s played all year,” Middletown head coach Roxi Holt said of Doris. “She was key for us.”
Contributions from Harbison and Izzi Hoogendoorn also helped Middletown hold the line against the Eagles with Mia Hoogendoorn spending a lot more time than either she or Holt wanted.
“Izzi and Harley did a great job rebounding the ball against their big girl (6-foot-0 sophomore center Ronni Hatcher),” Holt said.
“Jordyn, Izzi and Jaylee never came out of the game,” Holt said. “At one point we had Mia and Harley both on the bench with four fouls.”
The Mustangs never panicked.
“We’ve been preaching all year we’re a team, not a one-person show,” Holt said. “Coming out of Cloverdale with a win is huge.”
Neither team had a great night shooting the ball, but Middletown certainly had more success than the Eagles (0-1 league, 2-3 overall), who struggled all game.
“No excuses,” Cloverdale head coach Mac Butler said. “They (Mustangs) deserved it.”
Middletown returns to action Thursday at 5 p.m. against Justin-Siena in the opening round of the 75th annual Redwood Empire Invitational Basketball Tournament in Healdsburg.
There was no junior varsity game between Middletown and Cloverdale because the Eagles are not fielding a JV team this season.
In other girls basketball action Tuesday:
Lower Lake 27, Kelseyville 26
At Lower Lake, Irianna Milano and Jamiya Lee-Ayers finished with seven points apiece and Mary Watson added six more as the Lower Lake Trojans edged the Kelseyville Knights in the NCL I opener for both teams.
“Scoring was not on the table tonight for eight team,” Lower Lake head coach Shannon Tubbs said. “Shooting is still a struggle at this point. I’m hoping it comes along in the next few days.”
Lower Lake (1-0, 2-3) opens play in its own tournament, the Winter Classic, Friday at 7:30 p.m. against Maxwell.
“Frustrating night for us,” Kelseyville head coach Tim Conrad said. “I believe the term is ‘we couldn’t hit water if we fell out of the boat.’ I think we probably shot at least double the amount of shots that Lower Lake did on the night. We were 9-for-60 (15 percent), 1-for-8 on 3s (12 percent), and 5-for-15 on free throws (33 percent).”
Added Conrad of his team’s miserable night shooting the ball, “That is not going to cut it if we want to win games. It is hard to win a game if we can only score 26 points.”
Olivia Hommer had the lion’s share of the Knights’ points with 16. Nyejzniya Krohn was the next highest scorer with five. Hommer’s 3-pointer with less than 30 seconds left put Kelseyville up by a point, but Lower Lake scored moments later on a short jump shot to win it.
Kelseyville returns to action Thursday against Las Plumas in the Oroville Tournament.
The Kelseyville-Lower Lake junior varsity game also went down to the wire, Aubree Sperber’s final-second basket lifting the Knights to a 36-35 win.
Sperber and Riley Hanson shared scoring honors for the Knights with 10 points apiece and Hanson also had 10 rebounds for a double-double. Grace Hobbs finished with six points and four rebounds while Jordyn Wurm and Yuri Montero added five points apiece.
“We really struggled with our shooting in the first half of the game, but the girls played strong defense throughout and that really helped us to stay in the game,” Kelseyville head coach Liz Berry said. “This team reads the court really well and they executed everything we threw at them perfectly in the last two minutes when the game was on the line.”
Kelseyville is 1-0 in league and 7-0 overall.
Madelyn Garner’s double-double of 13 points and 12 rebounds led the Trojans (0-1, 3-2). Leanna Ortega added 10 points and Lily Milano had six.
“We came out at halftime wanting it, outscoring them 17-9 (in the third quarter),” Lower Lake head coach Jessica Wiley said. “Then in the fourth we got tired and got sloppy on defense. It was a tough loss, but definitely something everyone can learn from.”
Lower Lake returns to action Friday in its own tournament, the Winter Classic. The Trojans play Point Arena at 3 p.m.
St. Helena 41, Clear Lake 30
At St. Helena, Faith McIntire scored 15 points and pulled down 11 rebounds, but the Clear Lake Cardinals fell to the St. Helena Saints in the league opener for both teams.
“The girls played well in the first quarter but lost their momentum from there on out,” Clear Lake head coach Larry Richardson said. “Once behind they fell apart and allowed way too many errors.”
Karsyn Greer hit two 3-pointers for Clear Lake (0-1, 1-2) to finish with six points. Emily Gersalia had nine rebounds and four assists while Kaitlynn Hackbarth added four points, five rebounds and two steals.
Clear Lake led 9-5 after one quarter but St. Helena pushed in front 18-16 by halftime. The Saints took a 28-19 lead into the fourth quarter.
Clear Lake plays a non-league Wednesday night in South Fork before hitting the road Thursday to open play in the Calistoga Tournament.
Clear Lake did beat St. Helena in the JV game, 31-13, behind 11 points from Camara Wittman and four each from Haylie Garcia, Hailey Perez, Cali Albaum and Avery Fiske.
Fort Bragg 49, Upper Lake 42
At Fort Bragg, Upper Lake head coach Raelene Cromwell wasn’t around to see the last quarter-plus of the Cougars’ league-opening loss to the Fort Bragg Timberwovles after picking up a second technical foul in the third quarter, which resulted in her ejection.
Aimee Schaefers scored 11 points to lead the Cougars (0-1, 1-2), Alyssa John added 10 more and Naomi Poe had nine.
Upper Lake returns to action Friday against Point Arena at 4:30 p.m. in the opening round of the Winter Classic at Lower Lake, which runs through Saturday.
Upper Lake beat Fort Bragg 41-9 in JV action behind 15 points from Rylee Zimmerschied and 10 apiece from Magdely Garcia and Kaylin Smith.
“Proud of the team for their effort and teamwork in their first league game,” Upper Lake head coach Mark Zimmerschied said.
