Clear Lake girls reach consolation championship game
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KELSEYVILLE >> When they met earlier this week in a North Central League I in Middletown, the Kelseyville Knights needed four quarters to score a grand total of 18 points, losing 32-18 to the Middletown Mustangs in a battle of last year’s league co-champions.
Fast forward to Friday night in Kelseyville where the same two teams squared off in the winner’s semifinal round of the 53rd annual Stokes Tournament, a berth in Saturday’s championship game hanging in the balance.
Kelseyville didn’t waste the opportunity to make amends, beating an understrength Mustangs squad 53-27. The Knights (8-2) will face St. Bernard of Eureka in the Stokes finals Saturday at 6 p.m., a rematch of last year’s Stokes championship game won by the Crusaders 75-39.
St. Bernard defeated Ferndale 63-38 in Friday’s other semifinal.
Kelseyville exceeded the 18 points it scored in Tuesday’s league-opening loss to Middletown by halftime on Friday night. The Knights led 19-16, but their offense really took off in the third quarter as a 13-0 run in the first two minutes of the second half pushed their lead to 32-16. AJ Wurm fueled the run with a pair of 3-pointers, Grace Hobbs added another 3-pointer, and Aubree Sperber and Mati Mateer scored down low. Middletown’s Izzi Hoogendoorn finally got the Mustangs on the board with 4:14 left in the quarter, but the Knights added another five points for a 37-18 lead.
Kelseyville had as much as a 32-point lead late in the fourth quarter.
“A huge turnaround game from Tuesday night in Middletown,” Kelseyville head coach Tim Conrad said. “Although I wish we could have played this well in our league game, I’m not gonna complain. We did a great job of moving the ball and getting good open looks as a team tonight. Early, we were having a bit of a hard time getting the ball to fall, but we talked about staying confident. We were getting great looks. We told them that it will start to find the net.”
AJ Wurm led the Knights with 20 points – 16 more than she had in the league opener at Middletown – while Sperber finished with 11 and Mateer and Hobbs nine apiece.
“AJ did a great job of staying patient and letting the game come to her tonight,” Conrad said “Everyone is keying in on her, so we need others to step up and take some pressure off. That happened tonight with a very balanced attack.”
Middletown went without a player in double digits as Sarah Fetters finished with eight points, including both of the Mustangs’ 3-pointers.
Middletown plays Ferndale for third place Saturday at 3 p.m.
Clear Lake 44, Lower Lake 34
Clear Lake scored the first 10 points of the third quarter, shutting out Lower Lake for nearly seven minutes, while breaking open a 21-21 game at halftime.
The Cardinals, now 5-7 on the season, play in the consolation championship game Saturday against McKinleyville at noon. Lower Lake (4-6) plays Casa Grande in the seventh-place game at 9 a.m.
Clear Lake had all kinds of opportunities to pull away in the latter stages of the game, but the Cardinals hit only 13 of 34 free throws. Clear Lake dominated down low on offense and outrebounded Lower Lake by a healthy margin at both ends of the floor.
Amelie Davis led the Cardinals with 12 points while teammates Faith McIntire and Jazmin Wiebusch joined her in double digits with 10 points apiece.
Leanna Ortega’s eight points paced the Trojans. Irianna Milano and Lily Milano each had six.
“Hard to win games when you commit 20 turnovers and shoot 11-for-62 from the field and 8-for-18 from the free-throw line,” Lower Lake head coach Shannon Tubbs said. “Trying to find a way to fix where we are struggling because the girls play hard.”
Maddy Garner pulled down a team-best nine rebounds for the Trojans while Ortega had three steals.
