Four teams share NCL I lead after Friday’s round of games
Lake County Sports on Facebook
MIDDLETOWN >> A first-place showdown between the Middletown Mustangs and Fort Bragg Timberwolves never materialized on Friday night.
Middletown made sure of that.
Mia Hoogendoorn scored 10 of her team-leading 25 points in the first quarter and Jordyn Harbison had eight of her 12 in the opening period as the Mustangs routed the Timberwolves 56-25 in North Central League I varsity girls basketball action at Middletown.
Middletown’s win combined with league victories by Kelseyville and Cloverdale on Friday night leaves the NCL I standings with four teams tied at 3-1. Fort Bragg was the last remaining undefeated team until showing up at Tallman Gym.
“We held them down on defense and created things from the turnovers,” Middletown head coach Roxi Holt said of a 21-4 first quarter. “They (Timberwolves) were 3-0, so we knew we had to start well, get the jump on them, and we did.”
And once they had the Timberwolves in a big hole, Middletown (3-1 league, 11-4 overall) didn’t back off.
“We weren’t going to let them back in it,” Holt said. “It was too big of a game.”
Middletown kept pulling away, pushing its lead to 36-12 by halftime and 46-19 through three quarters.
The return to Jaylee Doris to the starting lineup gave the Mustangs a big lift as the senior had been out with the flu. She finished with eight points.
Holt credited Harbison, a sophomore, with a nice job of running the point.
“She’s going to take her lumps out there, but she’s learning from it,” Holt said.
Middletown hit six 3-pointers, three by Hoogendoorn and two by Doris. Hoogendoorn sat out most of the fourth quarter.
The Mustangs hit the road Tuesday to play St. Helena as part of a four-game set. Action begins with the junior varsity girls at 3 p.m. followed by the JV boys at 4:30 p.m., the varsity girls at 6 p.m. and the varsity boys at 7:30 p.m.
In other NCL I varsity girls action Friday:
Kelseyville 58, Upper Lake 38
At Kelseyville, Kelseyville scored the game’s first 29 points and had a 34-3 lead after one quarter while beating the Upper Lake Cougars for their sixth win in seven games.
“We absolutely came out on first,” Kelseyville head coach Tim Conrad said. “We were everywhere defensively. We made it extremely hard for them to do much of anything on their end.”
“We definitely had a rough start tonight,” Upper Lake coach Fawn Rave said. “The first quarter was ugly, and we couldn’t get past Kelseyville’s defense. We went into halftime (down) 46-10 with way too many turnovers. We came out at half, and knew we had to work as a team and made goals for fewer turnovers and more rebounds, and we reached those. They girls could have easily given up at half, but they all came out ready to play.”
Ashlyn Wurm and Cali Schnabl sparked the Kelseyville offense in the first quarter. Wurm scored 15 of her team-leading 21 points and Schnabl 10 of her 15 in the opening period. Wurm, who also scored 20 points on Tuesday in a league win at St. Helena, had 19 points by halftime.
“That was just an amazing half of basketball,” Conrad said. “I don’t know if we could play any better. It was really fun watching us fly around the court.”
Briana Davis and Mati Mateer finished with 10 points apiece, joining teammates Wurm and Schnabl in double digits.
Alyssa John’s 14 points led the Cougars, now 0-4 in league play. Aimee Schaefers and Aubrey Suzor had six points apiece.
St. Helena 58, Lower Lake 35
At St. Helena, St. Helena outscored Lower Lake 21-5 in the first quarter and the Trojans never recovered against the host Saints.
“They missed maybe four shots, we couldn’t make anything,” Lower Lake head coach Shannon Tubbs said of the first quarter.
Brooke Benson’s eight points led the Trojans (1-3, 5-10), Irianna Milano had seven and Ayla Ales six.
Lower Lake stays on the road Tuesday to play Upper Lake (0-4).
Cloverdale 47, Clear Lake 41
At Cloverdale, both teams had key players foul out in a physical battle that went to the host Cloverdale Eagles.
“Very physical game where both power forwards fouled out,” Cloverdale head coach Mac Butler said of Cloverdale’s Cami Donahoo and Clear Lake’s Faith McIntire.
Amara Galvan’s 12 points led the Eagles (3-1, 6-8), who moved into a four-way tie for first place with the win, and Ronni Hatcher had 10.
Jazmin Wiebusch’s 19 points, including three 3-pointers, led the Cardinals (1-3, 4-8), Karsyn Greer had eight and McIntire six.
Clear Lake hosts Kelseyville on Tuesday while Cloverdale is home against Fort Bragg.
