K’ville to play St. Bernard’s for Stokes title Saturday night; Trojans fall to Ferndale
KELSEYVILLE >> Pick a Kelseyville name, pretty much any name and you’ll find a hero during the Knights’ last-second 39-38 win over the Healdsburg Greyhounds on Friday in the girls winner’s semifinal round of the annual Stokes Tournament at Kelseyville High School.
The dramatic victory, Kelseyville’s fourth win in a row, puts the Knights (6-5) into the Stokes title game Saturday at 6 p.m. against St. Bernard’s of Eureka. Kelseyville and St. Bernard’s also meet in the boys championship game that follows at 7:30 p.m., the first time both Kelseyville squads have advanced to the finals in the same year since December of 2017 (they both lost to Piedmont).
“I’m not really sure how we pulled that one out,” Kelseyville head coach Tim Conrad said. “Healdsburg is a big, aggressive team. They made it hard for us to run our offense most of the night. It was a back-and-forth game the whole night.”
Kelseyville was staring at a 38-34 deficit in the closing minutes.
“Down by four, we set up a play for Mati (Mateer) to hit a corner 3,” Conrad said. “We executed and she drained it … nothing but the bottom of the net.”
Mateer finished the game with only five points, but none were bigger for the Knights, who still had some work to do trailing 38-37.
Cali Schnabl, a senior guard, worked her way to the free-throw line for two shots a short time later, hitting one of them to tie the score at 38.
With only 21 seconds remaining, Olivia Hommer drew a shooting foul, hitting the first free throw to put the Knights up 39-38. Kelseyville’s defense, a bright spot all night, denied the Greyhounds in the final seconds to secure the victory.
“AJ Wurm and Briana Davis were awesome tonight,” Conrad said when asked about Kelseyville’s defense. “Together they caused so much havoc on the defensive end. They both got into foul trouble midway through the second quarter and had to sit. When they both came out, Healdsburg made a run. They both got after it again late in the second half.”
Hommer finished the night with a team-best 12 points as well as eight rebounds. Schnabl added eight points while Wurm and Davis each had six.
Kelseyville led 10-6 after one quarter and 15-14 at halftime. Healdsburg took a 27-25 lead into the fourth quarter.
“I am really proud of the girls,” Conrad said. “We didn’t play a clean game, but the girls responded and finished a tough game. We have come a long way from the beginning of the year. These are big confidence boosters.”
It was only the second setback of the year for the Greyhounds (8-2), whose only other loss came to Justin Siena of Napa in the championship game of last week’s Redwood Empire Invitational in Healdsburg.
Healdsburg plays Pinole Valley for third place Saturday at 3 p.m.
In other Stokes girls action Friday:
Ferndale 47, Lower Lake 30
The Ferndale Wildcats, Stokes champions in 2021 and ’22 as well as last year’s consolation champion, beat Lower Lake in a consolation-semifinal game.
Lower Lake (4-7) hung tough for a half, trailing 22-15 at the intermission, before Ferndale (6-3) pulled away with a 17-6 third quarter.
“We played better than last night (a 59-33 loss to Kelseyville in first-round action Thursday),” Lower Lake head coach Shannon Tubbs said. “We cut our turnovers down to 16, which is really good for us. We had more positives than negatives, we just couldn’t knock down shots.”
Lower Lake struggled at the free-throw line, going 6-for-18.
“That’s not going to help,” Tubbs said.
Irianna Milano accounted for nearly half of Lower Lake’s offense with 14 points, including a 3-pointer. Jamiya Lee-Ayers pulled down a team-best six rebounds to go along with three points.
Ferndale plays Cloverdale in the consolation championship game Saturday at noon while Lower Lake takes on Oroville in the seventh-place game at 9 a.m.
In other Stokes Friday action, Cloverdale defeated oriole 46-30 in the consolation semifinals while St. Bernard’s beat Pinole Valley 50-43 in the winner’s semifinals.
JV basketball
Kelseyville 47, Redwood 22
At Santa Rosa, Grace Hobbs scored 17 points and pulled down eight rebounds as the Kelseyville junior varsity girls basketball team reached the championship game of the Jeff Paul Tournament at Maria Carrillo High School with a win over Redwood.
The undefeated Knights (10-0) play Analy for the championship on Saturday at 10:30 a.m.
Jordyn Wurm, a freshman, added a double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds while Riley Hanson contributed six points, seven rebounds and two assists. Yuri Montero had six points and five rebounds, and Aubree Sperber finished with six points.
“Redwood was a competitive team, but the girls showed up to play tonight,” Kelseyville head coach Liz Berry said. “We ran the floor well and continued to have great ball movement offensively.”
