Lady Knights, Mustangs, Cardinal all register North Central League I victories
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UPPER LAKE >> Ashlyn (AJ) Wurm might have been just a tiny bit nervous going into Tuesday night’s action against Upper Lake, her old team, as she pursued her 1,000th carer point, a long journey that officially ended with 5:58 left in the first half of the Knights’ North Central League I varsity girls basketball game against the Cougars in Upper Lake.
That’s completely understandable, but the nerves didn’t last long for this tried and true Kelseyville veteran. Although she missed the first of two foul shots, the ball bouncing off the back iron, she dropped the second one cleanly through the net for point No. 1,000, and the game was momentarily stopped so that she could celebrate with teammates and coaches in front of the Kelseyville bench. There were plenty of excited fans on both sides of the Upper Lake gym applauding the moment and especially the player, many of them armed with signs commemorating Wurm’s big night.
Her early-game jitters gone, Wurm didn’t miss much from the field the rest of the night, scoring 14 more points, 22 overall, as the Knights beat Upper Lake 59-39 to remain alive in the league race and headed toward the North Coast Section playoffs as the victory was their 16th of the season.
“Big night for AJ,” Kelseyville head coach Tim Conrad said. “Fun for her to get her 1,000th point in Upper Lake where she started her high school career. I thought we were a little tight in the beginning. We missed a few easy lay-ins and were pressing a bit to try and get part the mark. We tried her at different spots in our offense to create better looks for her.”
Added Conrad, “Once she was able to push past it, I felt like it settled everyone down, her included.”
Several of Wurm’s team-leading eight steals led to driving layups for the senior. Other Knights stepped up as well during the 20-point victory, namely senior Mati Mateer, who had 12 points and 12 rebounds, junior Grace Hobbs with 10 points and five rebounds, and sophomore Aubree Sperber with nine points and eight rebounds. Arane Gonzalez came off the bench to add four points and six rebounds.
Though it wasn’t Kelseyville’s cleanest game of the season, the Knights have won seven of their last eight.
“I did feel like we were pretty sloppy with the ball,” Conrad said. “Too many unforced turnovers, and I also thought we gave up far too many wide-open 3s. Luckily, they (Cougars) had a tough shooting night. We had a nice, balanced scoring attack again tonight. When we can get our four scorers around the double-digit mark, it makes us a lot harder to beat.”
Aimee Schaefers led the Cougars (6-5, 16-7) with 17 points, 16 rebounds and five steals while Alyssa John had 11 points, 11 rebounds and two blocks. Rylee Zimmerschied added six points and five rebounds while Camila Martin had five points and seven rebounds.
On Friday, Kelseyville plays Clear Lake in Lakeport where the Cardinals’ Faith McIntire needs 13 points to reach 1,000 for her career. Upper Lake hosts Lower Lake.
In junior varsity action Tuesday, Kelseyville beat Upper Lake 58-11 behind 15 points from Carly Gleason, 12 from Brooke Poff, nine from Gabby Keyes, and seven each from Olivia Arredondo and Ximena Herren.
“We had a good night with our ball movement,” Kelseyville head coach Liz Berry said. “The girls got into some good transitions in the first half to help push the game, and we were able to focus on sharpening up our offense in the second half.”
Kelseyville is 5-5 in league and 9-8 overall. Upper Lake is 2-7 in league and 4-11 overall.
Upper Lake scoring was not reported.
In other NCL I girls action Tuesday:
St. Helena 36, Lower Lake 29
At St. Helena, the St. Helena Saints trailed 12-11 at halftime but finally put some offense together in the second half to beat the Lower Lake Trojans.
“Another solid defensive effort,” Lower Lake head coach Shannon Tubbs said. “We took care of the ball tonight with six turnovers. Shooting again was our downfall. We were just 2-for-11 from the line and a couple of late mistakes were the difference tonight.”
Three players scored all of Lower Lake’s points, led by Aly Aguirre with 11, including three 3-pointers. Irianna Milano added 10 points and Jamiya Lee-Ayers had the other eight.
Lower Lake is 6-5 in league and 9-11 overall. St. Helena is 8-3 in league and 14-6 overall.
Lower Lake won the JV game by forfeit.
Middletown 66, Fort Bragg 31
At Middletown, the Middletown Mustangs are closing in on a third straight league title after routing the Fort Bragg Timberwolves.
Middletown (10-1, 16-6) can clinch no worse than a tie for the league title with a win Friday night in St. Helena. If Middletown wins and Kelseyville loses to Clear Lake in Lakeport on Friday, the Mustangs clinch the outright championship.
Izzi Hoogendoorn’s 21 points led the Mustangs, who were able to empty their bench early on against the Timberwolves (1-10, 3-19). Jordyn Harbison finished with 12 points, JV call-up Ally Cherry had 10, Autumn Clark added eight while JV call-up Emma Davis chipped in another seven.
“Everyone got a lot of play time tonight,” Middletown head coach Roxi Holt said.
Middletown’s JVs prevailed 58-9 behind 12 points from Chloe Pulido, 11 from Jolene Holley and 10 from Nevaeh Wienke.
The Mustangs (9-0, 17-3) led 19-0 after one quarter.
“It was a good team win and everybody got to contribute,” Middletown head coach Daryl Dacosta said. “We were able to build a good enough lead in the first half and that allowed our bench to play a majority of the game.”
Clear Lake 65, Cloverdale 44
At Cloverdale, though she’s had a couple of bumps this season on her road to 1,000 career points, Clear Lake High School senior Faith McIntire lit up the Cloverdale Eagles, scoring 32 points as the Cardinals rolled to a big road win.
McIntire, who now has 987 career points, can reach 1,000 on Friday when the Cardinals host archrival Kelseyville. She made four 3-pointers against Cloverdale, pulled down 17 rebounds and had three blocks.
Freshman Amelie Davis finished with 15 points, seven rebounds, six assists, four steals and two blocks as Clear Lake moved to 5-6 in league play and 10-13 overall.
Clear Lake broke open a competitive game in the first half with a 20-9 third quarter.
Kam Cresto added six points and seven rebounds in the win while Ashlynn Cruz had four points, five rebounds and three assists.
Because Cloverdale does not have a JV team, Clear Lake’s JVs hit the road to play Willits in non-league action and lost 27-22, their second loss to the Wolverines this season.
“This was a tough one for us,” Clear Lake head coach Tony Farrington said. “We struggled to make shots and protect the ball, and we needlessly threw the ball away.”
Clear Lake led 17-14 at halftime but could score only five points in the second half, their worst output in the second half this season, according to Farrington.
“The team played hard, but we just could not make the small things happen, and the shots were not falling for any player,” Farrington said. “It’s very difficult to win when we don’t score and we choose to pass the ball to the opposing team.”
