Upper Lake, Lower Lake varsity squads nail down league victories
Lake County Sports on Facebook
MIDDLETOWN >> The first of two league meetings this season between last season’s North Central League I varsity girls basketball co-champions, the Middletown Mustangs and Kelseyville Knights, was no contest Tuesday night.
That’ll happen when you hold the other team to 18 points, and the other team’s best player to only four, which is exactly what the Middletown Mustangs did in a 32-18 home victory.
“Big league win for our team,” Middletown head coach Roxi Holt said as the Mustangs improved to 2-0 in league and 6-3 overall while also snapping Kelseyville’s seven-game winning streak. “It was a full team effort tonight. Both teams struggled to put the ball in the hoop, however we had a game plan and executed it. The girls worked hard and never gave up.”
Added Holt, “We knew that Ashlyn (AJ Wurm) has been scoring big and we held her to four points.”
Middletown’s defense not only took the bite out of Kelseyville’s offense, but the Mustangs shut out the Knights 7-0 in the fourth quarter.
“They scored their only points of the second half in the third quarter,” Holt said.
“I think we were feeling a little too good about ourselves after our 7-1 start and tournament championship in Oroville (last weekend),” Kelseyville head coach Tim Conrad said. “We got a rude awakening tonight. I thought we had worked out our offensive struggles the last few games. That is obviously not true. We have a lot more work to do.”
Conrad said the Knights were “outworked, outhustled, outplayed and outcoached” by the Mustangs.
“Middletown wanted it more and was the better team by far tonight,” Conrad added.
Kelseyville shot just 7-for-40 from the field, including 0-for-10 from beyond the 3-point arc, and just 4-for-11 from the free-throw line.
Neither team had a player score in double digits although the Mustangs’ Jordyn Harbison and Harley Holley came close, each with nine. Harbison also had two 3-pointers. Sarah Fetter added six points.
Mati Mateer’s five points led the Knights (1-1, 7-2) while Wurm and Yuri Montero each had four.
In the junior varsity game, Middletown defeated Kelseyville 40-18 behind 15 points, seven rebounds and six steals from Ally Cherry and seven points and 11 rebounds from Emma Davis.
“Ally Cherry had herself a night and led our team at both ends of the court,” Middletown head coach Daryl Dacosta said. “When her shots are falling, she can really take over a game. Emma Davis was big for us again tonight on the boards. Gracie (Williams) was big on the defensive side of the ball with six steals.”
Middletown is 1-0 in league and 7-1 overall.
Carly Gleason’s six points and eight rebounds powered the Knights (0-2, 4-5) while Brooke Poff added four points and four steals.
“Middletown is a very good and experienced team,” Kelseyville head coach Liz Berry said. “And our freshmen side definitely showed last night. We had 31 turnovers. It’s hard to accomplish much when you’re turning the ball over that quickly.”
In other girls league action Tuesday:
Upper Lake 54, Clear Lake 49
At Upper Lake, the Upper Lake Cougars are off to a 2-0 league start after turning back the Clear Lake Cardinals thanks to a 16-7 fourth quarter.
The Cougars rallied from as much as a 16-point deficit to remain perfect on the season (8-0).
“We switched up our defense, and we were able to keep them out of the middle,” Upper Lake head coach Raelene Cromwell said.
Upper Lake also had trouble breaking Clear Lake’s press in the early going.
Senior Aimee Schaefers took control of the game late for the Cougars and ended up scoring 14 points and pulling down 18 rebounds.
“Aimee killed it in the middle with a lot of rebounds and holding her ground,” Cromwell said.
Alyssa John (13 points) sealed the win at the free-throw line after drawing a shooting foul with 30 seconds left to play. She made both shots.
Rylee Zimmerschied joined Schaefers and John in double digits with 14 points.
“This was a total team effort from players and coaches,” Cromwell said.
Amelie Davis, a freshman, turned in a strong effort for the Cardinals with 21 points, including three 3-pointers, nine rebounds, five steals, three blocks and two assists. Faith McIntire added a double-double of 13 points and 15 rebounds with five steals while Jazmin Wiebusch had seven points.
Upper Lake is scheduled to play Willits and Hoopa on Thursday in the opening rounds of the South Fork Tournament in Miranda. Clear Lake (0-2, 4-6) plays Kelseyville 10:30 a.m. Thursday in the opening round of the Stokes Tournament at Kelseyville.
In JV action Tuesday, Clear Lake beat Upper Lake 42-24 to improve to 2-0 in league play and 6-0 overall.
“They worked had and played good defense with better communication on the floor,” Clear Lake head coach Tony Farrington said. “Thankfully, their teamwork and effort allowed us to give all players an opportunity to play tonight.”
Macie Snider (13 points) and Hailey Perez (10 points) led the way for the undefeated Cardinals. Ava Gamble and Camara Wittman each had seven.
Upper Lake is 1-1 in league play. Individual scoring was not reported.
Lower Lake 45, Fort Bragg 35
At Lower Lake, Mary Watson’s 17 points and Lily Milano’s 10 points and nine rebounds helped carry the Lower Lake Trojans past the Fort Bragg Timberwolves.
“We’re still working on finding our offense, but defensively we played a solid game,” Lower Lake head coach Shannon Tubbs said. “We limited our turnovers in the second half, which created a ton of opportunities. Mary Watson and Olivia Guralas combined for 10 steals, which set the tone.”
Aly Aguirre added eight points, including two 3-pointers. Guralas finished with rebounds, six steals and two points.
Lower Lake (1-1, 4-4) plays Middletown on Thursday at 1:30 p.m. in the opening round of the Stokes Tournament at Kelseyville.
Lower Lake also won the JV game against Fort Bragg, 50-23, behind double-doubles from Eden Sparks (10 points, 16 rebounds) and Urijah Rogers (10 points, 15 rebounds).
“We were able to utilize the whole team tonight,” Lower Lake head coach Jessica Lackowski said. “Things ran at a slower pace than we’d like, but there was a lot learned.”
Samira Mendez contributed 10 points to the win and Darleen Benefield had eight.
Lower Lake is 2-0 in league and 8-1 overall.
