Clear Lake falls to St. Helena in North Central League I girls basketball action
Lake County Sports on Facebook
LOWER LAKE >> In a rough-and-tumble North Central League I varsity girls basketball battle between two teams fighting to remain near the top of the standings, the Kelseyville Knights walked off the court a tired, battered bunch after beating the Lower Lake Trojans 39-30 on Friday night in Lower Lake.
Kelseyville (6-2 league, 14-4 overall) is tied with St. Helena for second place, one game behind Middletown (7-1), the team the Knights host Tuesday. Kelseyville and Middletown tied for the league title last season.
“Rough and tough defensive game,” Kelseyville head coach Tim Conrad said. “Lots of physical play. Both teams had good defensive efforts that made it tough to put the ball in the basket. When you get into games like that where points are hard to come by, as a player it’s easy to put extra pressure on yourself to make the easy open looks, maybe too much pressure because the shots don’t go down.”
Lower Lake (5-3, 8-9) dropped a game behind Kelseyville and St. Helena and two games behind Middletown in the standings.
Ashlyn Wurm led the Knights with 17 points and seven steals while teammate Mati Mateer just missed a double-double with 11 points and nine rebounds. Aubree Sperber added eight points and eight rebounds.
“The girls played hard, but we couldn’t keep them (Knights) off the free-throw line,” Lower Lake head coach Shannon Tubbs said. “We couldn’t get to the free-throw line.”
Irianna Milano’s nine points and seven more from Brooke Watson led the Trojans while Jamiya Lee-Ayers and Aly Aguirre each had six.
The game was close throughout. Kelseyville took 32-28 lead into the fourth quarter.
“We kept the lead up with our play defensively,” Conrad said. “That’s been our bread and butter all year. Down the stretch we were finally able to use some clock and then Mati Mateer stepped up and sealed the game from the free-throw line, hitting three of four in the last couple of minutes.”
Grace Hobbs had three points and five rebounds for the Knights.
In junior varsity action, Lower Lake defeated Kelseyville 46-25 behind 15 points from Darleen Benefield and Eden Sparks’ double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds. Samira Mendez Lucas added eight points while Urijah Rogers and Lexi Mitchell each had six.
“Once we started to settle in the rhythm on offense we were able to pull away,” Lower Lake head coach Jessica Landowski said. “Our defense keeps getting stronger each game.”
Lower Lake improved to 5-2 in league play and 12-5 overall.
Riley Sperber, Ximena Herren, Brooke Poff, Carly Gleason and Taylor Wood had four points apiece for the Knights (3-4, 7-7).
“We had a tough time scoring last night, and we were only 4-for-13 from the line,” Kelseyville head coach Liz Berry said. “It’s hard to compete when we can’t get the ball in the basket. We had a lot of improvement with our ball movement offensively and the girls played really hard to the end, especially defensively, and didn’t hang their heads.”
Sperber pulled down eight rebounds and Gleason had five.
While Kelseyville’s teams are hosting Middletown on Tuesday, Lower Lake’s teams travel to Fort Bragg.
In other NCL I girls action Friday:
St. Helena 50, Clear Lake 43
At Lakeport, freshman Amelie Davis scored 16 points and pulled down eight rebounds, but the Clear Lake Cardinals fell to the St. Helena Saints
The Cardinals (3-5, 8-12) trailed only 35-31 entering the fourth quarter, but the Saints (6-2, 13-5) began to pull away a couple of minutes into the final period, opening up as much as a 48-36 lead.
After Davis, Clear Lake’s scoring fell off to eight points from Jazmin Wiebusch, six from Faith McIntire, who led the team with 14 rebounds, five blocks and three steals, and five points and five rebounds from Haylie Garcia.
The Cardinals are back in action Tuesday against Upper Lake.
Clear Lake (6-1, 12-1) won the JV game by forfeit.
Middletown 58, Cloverdale 16
At Middletown, bouncing back from a league loss to Clear Lake on Tuesday, the Middletown Mustangs, still not at full strength because of illness, dominated the Cloverdale Eagles, sparked by a 24-2 first quarter.
“The girls worked hard,” Middletown head coach Roxi Holt said. “Great contributions all around. The starters got some rest time, and everyone got some good play time. Almost everyone scored.”
With reserve post Brenna Goodloe out with the flu, the Mustangs called up Grace Williams, Chloe Pulido and Maddy de la Torre from the JV team, which did not have a game.
Izzi Hoogendoorn led the Mustangs (7-1, 13-6) with 16 points, 10 rebounds and seven steals. Autumn Clark scored all 13 of her points in the first quarter, and Jordyn Harbison added nine points.
“It was good having her back,” Holt said of Clark, who missed the Clear Lake game while on a soccer recruiting trip Tuesday.
Middletown travels to Kelseyville on Tuesday for a first-place showdown with the Knights. It’s the third meeting between the two teams this season. Middletown defeated Kelseyville 32-18 in league play at Middletown last month, and Kelseyville beat Middletown 53-27 in the Stokes Tournament last month in Kelseyville.
Cloverdale fell to 0-8 in the league standings.
Upper Lake 35, Fort Bragg 34
At Fort Bragg, Upper Lake (4-4, 14-4) snapped a four-game league losing streak with a narrow victory over the Fort Bragg Timberwolves (1-7, 3-17).
Rylee Zimmerschied’s 12 points and eight rebounds helped Upper Lake square its league record at 4-4. Aimee Schaefers added 10 points and 17 rebounds and Camila Martin had seven points, eight rebounds and three assists. Alyssa John chipped in another four points and nine rebounds.
Upper Lake plays Clear Lake on Tuesday.
In the JV game, Fort Bragg beat Upper Lake 42-30.
For the Cougars (2-5, 4-9), Annica Warren led the way with 10 points, Amelia Burnet had nine and Kenzie Foley eight.
