SEBASTOPOL — Jim Salmina said he knew the Kelseyville Knights wouldn”t have an easy time in the predominantly large-school Analy Tournament, which tipped off Friday with four first-round games at Analy High School in Sebastopol.
“I didn”t expect to play real well tonight, but I didn”t expect to get hammered by 30,” Salmina said after watching the Kelseyville varsity girls” basketball drop a 66-32 decision to the Arcata Tigers.
“We”ve had only three practices and then the game,” Salmina said.
As is this case almost every year, a majority of the Knights” starters get a late start in basketball because they also play volleyball and the Kelseyville volleyball teams have advanced to the North Coast Section Division IV playoffs almost every year since Salmina became the head basketball coach.
But the biggest factor in the Knights” slow start on Thursday against Arcata was that two of the team”s starters — Katie King and Jill Bailey played sparingly or not at all. King is out with a shoulder injury until later this month and Bailey, the team”s veteran point guard, played only a handful of minutes in the first half because of a thigh injury.
And playing the tournament favorite in his team”s season debut didn”t exactly help, either, according to Salmina.
“According to everyone I talked to they”re the best team here,” Salmina said.
Lauren Nixon”s 10 points sparked the Knights and Jodi Snider and Kaitlyn Goff, who came off the bench, added nine points apiece.
In other girls” action Thursday:
Santa Rosa 60, Middletown 40
At Sebastopol, the Middletown Mustangs also lost in the first round of the Analy Tournament, falling to the Santa Rosa Panthers.
Middletown (0-2) trailed only 35-29 entering the fourth quarter but couldn”t keep pace with the North Bay League team.
“It comes down to my three Ss of basketball & shooting, scoring and stopping the opposing team from scoring,” Middletown coach Marnin Pyzer said. “One thing we didn”t do well is shoot the ball. We were 16-for-68 (24 percent). We”re gonna struggle until we put the ball in the hoop.”
Julia Leathers and Kayla Welton scored nine points apiece for the Mustangs and Kelsey Welton had eight.
Dixon 47, Clear Lake 33
At Colusa, the Clear Lake Cardinals had plenty of shots but not many of them found the range in a first-round loss to Dixon at the Colusa Tournament.
“It wasn”t a lack of effort,” Clear Lake coach Jen Goff said. “Somebody put a lid on the basket. We just couldn”t get the ball to go through.”
Clear Lake led 12-9 after one quarter but struggled on offense the rest of the way. The team managed only six points in the fourth quarter, the result of two Kaila Sterbank 3-pointers.
Sterbank, a sophomore guard, finished with 11 points, including three 3-pointers. Brittany Rumfelt led the Cardinals (1-1) with 12 points and nine rebounds. Julie Jackson added six rebounds.
Lower Lake 51, JFK 47
At Fremont, Lower Lake used a 7-0 run to open the fourth quarter to pull away and the Trojans held on to beat John F. Kennedy High School of Fremont, a Division II team, in non-league action.
The Trojans (2-1) entered the final period leading 36-34. Passion Allen, Lower Lake”s leading scorer with 18 points, scored back-to-back buckets to open the quarter and Danielle Bettencourt nailed a 3-pointer to make it 43-34.
“We never gave up the lead and they never were closer than the final score,” Lower Lake coach Andrew Carpenter said. “It was a nice team win.”
Bettencourt finished with 16 points and had four 3-pointers, one in every quarter. Rissy Prude added eight points.
“I”m very happy with them,” Carpenter said of his players. “It was a hard-fought battle the entire way.”
Allen finished with a double-double as she also pulled down 10 rebounds.
