St. Bernard’s overcomes rough start to beat Kelseyville in Stokes Tournament final
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KELSEYVILLE >> Brock Barrick sank four of his six 3-pointers in the first quarter, but a red-hot start by the Kelseyville Knights wasn’t enough to overcome a strong finish by the St. Bernard’s Crusaders in the boys championship game of the annual Stokes Tournament on Saturday night at Kelseyville High School.
“We came out hot and hit five 3-pointers in the first quarter,” Kelseyville head coach Oscar Lopez said of the 22-10 lead the Knights (6-5) jumped out to against the Crusaders (7-2), who had that deficit down 37-31 by halftime. St. Bernard’s pushed ahead to stay with a 16-5 third quarter.
“We ran out of gas, couldn’t rebound,” Lopez said of the third quarter. “They (Crusaders) got so many offensive rebounds.”
The Knights recovered a bit in the fourth quarter but didn’t make a serious run at the Eureka team.
“They just wore us down,” Lopez said. “We ran out of legs.”
Barrick scored all 18 of his points on 3-pointers while All-Tournament selections Gene Holdenried and Kyle Watkins added 13 points apiece. Tyler Bryant had seven.
“The kids battled,” Lopez said. “We know we should have taken that game.”
Lopez said he’s still chasing that elusive first Stokes championship.
“I’m 0-for-3 now,” he said. “I’m 0-for-1 as a (Kelseyville) player, 0-for-2 as a coach.”
Kelseyville last reached the Stokes finals in 2017, losing to Piedmont.
Liam Dyer, a junior shooting guard, was honored as tournament most valuable player. Two of his teammates, junior small forward Carson Costa and sophomore power forward Garrett Shanahan, were named to the All-Tournament team.
Kelseyville returns to action Friday against Del Norte in Crescent City.
In other boys Stokes action Saturday:
Healdsburg 51, Upper Lake 32
Healdsburg beat Upper Lake in the consolation championship game. Healdsburg’s Ethan Overdorf and Upper Lake’s James Beaux Stiritz were named to the All-Tournament team.
Stiritz led the Cougars with 10 points and Delaney Allison had eight.
“We struggled with turnovers early,” Upper Lake head coach Tony Arroyo said. “Foul trouble early for Landen Robinson took our best defender off the court. Beaux also struggled with foul trouble.”
Lower Lake 56, Anderson Valley 39
Lower Lake (2-10) snapped a 10-game losing streak with a win over Anderson Valley in the seventh-place game. The Trojans avenged a 56-51 loss to Anderson Valley on Dec. 13.
All-Tournament selection Tucker Benson led the Trojans with 16 points.
“I made some position changes for this tournament and began running our sophomore, Tucker Benson, as point guard and giving him more playing time,” Lower Lake head coach Anthony Farrington said. “Tucker was fantastic this tournament and showed great hustle and gave 110 percent at all times. His level of play helped motivate our team.”
Added Farrington, “Overall we did a better job boarding out, but we struggled with our weakside players helping out while we were in our man-to-man defense, and Anderson Valley took advantage of it by driving to the basket.”
Noah Hakala joined Benson in double digits with 14 points while Brody Shields added eight and Luke Campbell and Ivan DeLeon had seven apiece.
Ferndale 57, Cloverdale 48
Ferndale clinched third place with a win over Cloverdale. Prescott Langer of Ferndale and Casyn Kamondy of Cloverdale were honored on the All-Tournament team.
In other boys action Saturday:
Gridley 58, Clear Lake 41
At Colusa, Gridley defeated Clear Lake in the championship game of the Colusa Tournament despite 19 points by the Cardinals’ Zane McAuley and 11 from Sawyer Smith, both named to the All-All-Tournament team.
“Tough night versus a really good team,” Clear Lake head coach Mark Croy said. “Gridley shot lights out in the first half.”
The Bulldogs led 22-11 after one quarter and 39-20 at halftime.
“We played much better in the second half and they cooled off a bit,” Cory added. “The boys played hard in adverse circumstances and competed the whole game. The main thing is we got better this week.
Gridley improved to 8-3 while Clear Lake fell to 6-5.
Middletown 66, Sonoma Academy 57
At Santa Rosa, Middletown outscored Sonoma Academy 21-7 in the third quarter after the two teams went into halftime tied at 31.
“We came out flat and then played tough for the rest of the game, especially the third quarter,” Middletown head coach Jake Diehl said. “Our ball movement was stellar, and the defense was stingy. I’m proud of the fellas for answered the call at halftime.”
Bodhi Moore’s 21 points, including three 3-pointers, powered the Middletown offense. He also blocked three shots. Anthony Bowerman added 16 points and six rebounds while Harrison Brown had 10 points, including two 3-pointers, and five steals.
Middletown (8-3) hosts Healdsburg on Dec. 31.
JV basketball
Clear Lake 58, Credo 51
Clear Lake 60, Fort Bragg 52
At Cloverdale, Gael Moreno scored 20 points and teammates Nolan Buffalo (15), Ayden Moreno (13) and Noah Cleaver (10) also scored in double digits as the Clear Lake JV team beat Credo to win the consolation championship at the Cloverdale JV Tournament.
Ayden Moreno, Buffalo and Gael Moreno collected 12, 11 and 10 rebounds, respectively, to complete double-doubles.
“It was a rough start; the second game in one day we got off to a slow start after the first quarter (trailing18-13),” Clear Lake head coach Shady Cerezo said. “We held them to six points in the second to cut the lead 24-22 going into halftime. It was a close game all the way through.”
With two players ineligible because of grades, Cerezo said other players needed to step up.
“Gael, Ayden and Nolan all finished the game with a double-double, and Noah just missed it with eight rebounds,” Cerezo added.
Clear Lake finally took charge in the fourth quarter, outscoring Credo 22-13.
“It was a good weekend of basketball,” Cerezo said. “I felt like our team came out understanding that there’s no substitute to hard work.”
Earlier Saturday, Clear Lake beat Fort Bragg 60-52 in the consolation semifinals.
Cleaver led the Cardinals (3-5) with 22 points while Ayden Moreno and Buffalo added 15 and 11, respectively.
“I challenged my guys before the game and they responded,” Cerezo said. “We got off to a great start on both sides of the ball.”
Clear Lake led 16-7 after one quarter and 34-20 at halftime.
Ayden Moreno was named to the All-Tournament team.
Las Plumas 44, Kelseyville 31
At Colusa, Las Plumas knocked off Kelseyville in the third-place game of the Colusa Tournament. Nick Arredondo led the Knights (4-5) with nine points and Ryan Keithly had eight.
