NCL I co-leaders headed toward first-place showdown next week in Middletown
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LAKEPORT >> Even at less than 100 percent, Middletown High School senior Mia Hoogendoorn is one tough customer.
Playing on a sore ankle, Hoogendoorn, Middletown’s newly crowned career scoring leader, poured in 24 points Tuesday night to lead the Mustangs to a 59-41 victory over the less-than-100-percent Clear Lake Cardinals in North Central League I varsity girls basketball action in Lakeport.
Clear Lake (1-6 league, 4-12 overall) was minus seniors Emily Gersalia and Kaylah Billig, both serving suspensions because of fallout from last week’s games against Colusa and Lower Lake.
Middletown head coach Roxi Holt said the Cardinals did everything they could to slow down Hoogendoorn and her sore ankle.
“They face-guarded her the whole way,” Holt said. “She’s getting used to that by this point.”
Holt spelled Hoogendoorn throughout the game, making use of her bench whenever possible.
“Everyone got to play a lot,” Holt said.
The injury, sustained during Middletown’s win on Friday in Upper Lake where Hoogendoorn became Middletown’s all-time scoring leader, definitely was a factor in her performance, according to Holt.
“It’s definitely a little sore and you could tell there was a decrease in her defensive play,” Holt said. “We were just trying to be cautious.”
Middletown (6-1 league, 14-4 overall) remains tied with Kelseyville for first place atop the league standings, and those two teams square off next Tuesday in Middletown.
“We came out hard from the beginning,” Holt said of the Mustangs’ 20-4 first quarter. “We came out and took care of business.”
Izzi Hoogendoorn added 11 points, Sarah Fetters had 10 and Jordyn Harbison seven for the Mustangs, winners of seven straight.
Faith McIntire’s 19 points and 13 rebounds powered the Cardinals while Jazmin Wiebusch added 13 points. Kam Cresto finished with four points and nine rebounds.
Middletown led 32-12 at halftime.
“It was a clean game on both sides,” Holt said. “The refs called a tight game.”
Hoogendoorn’s 24 points give her 1,360 for her career, which moves her up to 12th on the list of the county’s career scoring leaders. Michelle Day (Lower Lake) is next up at 1,461 points.
In junior varsity action Tuesday, the Middletown Mustangs won their fourth straight league game, beating Clear Lake 49-29. Thally Rodriguez led the way with 19 points and Chloe Pulido had 17.
After starting league play with two losses, the Mustangs are now 4-2.
“The girls are really starting to gel as a team and are playing great basketball,” Middletown head coach Daryl Dacosta said. “When all 10 girls can contribute to the win, it really builds a bond within the team, and it translates to back on the court, and that’s what I’m seeing out there.”
Middletown hosts Cloverdale in a three-game set Friday. The JV boys play at 4:30 p.m., the varsity girls at 6 p.m., and the varsity boys at 7:30 p.m. Clear Lake remains home to take on St. Helena.
In other girls action Tuesday:
Kelseyville 54, Fort Bragg 42
At Kelseyville, the Fort Bragg Timberwolves didn’t make it easy on Kelseyville, but the Knights played well enough down the stretch to improve to 6-1 in league play and 11-7 overall.
“Tonight wasn’t one of our normal dominant defensive games,” Kelseyville head coach Tim Conrad said. “Fort Bragg was ready for us and was able to break our pressure. We mixed up several defenses and they still functioned well against most everything we did.”
Kelseyville outscored Fort Bragg 25-16 in the second half to break open an airtight game at halftime.
“I thought for the majority of the game, they (Timberwolves) wanted it more,” Conrad said. “They were coming off three straight losses and were hungry to win.”
Lemara Hendricks scored 22 points and Italia Bowles had 13, but the Timberwolves still fell to 3-4 in league play after starting out 3-0.
Kelseyville benefitted from a balanced scoring attack that featured 14 points from Briana Davis, 13 from Olivia Hommer, 12 from Ashlyn Wurm and nine from Cali Schnabl. Davis and Hommer both finished with double-doubles. Davis had 10 rebounds, five steals, three assists and two blocks on the night while Hommer pulled down 10 rebounds.
“A few minutes into the third quarter I felt like we started to go after it,” Conrad said. “We started to limit easy buckets and really started to run our offense for some good looks.”
Conrad praised the play of seniors Davis and Schnabl.
“Briana Davis really picked us up with some outside shooting,” Conrad said. “If she doesn’t hit some of those, it’s a single-digit game coming down the stretch. Cali Schnabl was so important for us tonight, too. She is just a solid player that is a great leader on the floor. She was able to focus in and lead by example. She was invaluable tonight.”
Added Conrad, “A gritty win for us tonight. Fort Bragg played really well.”
Kelseyville’s JV squad changed things up with its starting lineup but still cruised past Fort Bragg while improving to 6-0 in league play and 15-1 overall.
Aubree Sperber led the Knights with 12 points, Kendra Devries had 10, Riley Hanson seven and Jordyn Wurm and Yuri Montero six each.
“We switched things up tonight with a new starting five,” Kelseyville head coach Liz Berry said. “Kendra Devries, Josie Keithly and Arane Gonzalez helped push us to a 24-4 lead in the first quarter. We really focused on cleaning up our offense tonight and everyone was able to score four or more points.”
Hanson also had six rebounds and three assists for the Knights. Wurm led the team with seven rebounds, Devries had a team-best four steals, and Montero dished out four assists.
Cloverdale 44, Lower Lake 27
At Lower Lake, while neither team had a good night shooting the ball, the Cloverdale Eagles (5-2, 8-9) did enough to beat the Trojans and remain a game off the pace in the NCL I standings.
“A rough shooting night led to big second half for Cloverdale,” Lower Lake head coach Shannon Tubbs said of the 27-13 margin the Eagles outscored the Trojans over the final two quarters. “We gave up 25 offensive rebounds. We just couldn’t get into any kind of rhythm on offense.”
The Trojans were so cold that they went 13 minutes scoring only one basket and two free throws, according to Tubbs.
Amara Galvan’s 21 points paced the Eagles, who didn’t fare much better, according to head coach Mac Butler.
“We shared the cold-as-ice shooting with Lower Lake,” Butler said. “We were able to pull away in the second half with defensive pressure attack the high post.”
Brooke Benson’s 12 points, all on 3-pointers, led the Trojans (2-5, 6-12). One of those 3-pointers was a buzzer-beating bomb from well behind the midcourt stripe as the first half ended. Ayla Ales and Irianna Milano each added six points.
Bella Sanchez had seven points for the Eagles.
The Trojans were without Aly Aguirre, who was ejected from the team’s home win over Clear Lake on Friday.
Lower Lake returns to action Friday in Kelseyville while Cloverdale travels to Middletown.
There was no JV game.
St. Helena 74, Upper Lake 49
At St. Helena, Alyssa John scored 24 points as the Upper Lake Cougars went into halftime trailing by only five points, but the St. Helena Saints, enjoying their best NCL I season in many years, dominated the second half and went on to rout the Cougars.
“A slow game with way too many turnovers tonight,” Upper Lake coach Fawn Rave said. “Too many errors against their defense hurt us tonight. Even with 24 points from sophomore Alyssa Jon we couldn’t catch up.”
Aimee Schaefers finished with eight points and 11 rebounds for the Cougars (1-6, 6-9) while Aubrey Suzor had eight points.
Upper Lake won the JV game 41-22. Rylee Zimmerschied led the Cougars (2-4) with 13 points while Portia Klier finished with eight points and 12 rebounds. Kaylin Smith also scored eight points.
Upper Lake’s teams are home Friday to take on Fort Bragg.
