LOWER LAKE — Kevin Freeman”s 20 points, 10 rebounds and five assists propelled the Lower Lake Trojans past the Middletown Mustangs 67-49 in the North Central League I North opener for both of these varsity boys” basketball teams on Friday night in Lower Lake.
Coming off its worst outing of the season, a 48-41 loss at St. Helena on Tuesday, Lower Lake (1-0 North, 7-11 overall) responded with one of its best efforts, according to Lower Lake coach Marty Udy.
“That”s one of the amazing things about basketball,” Udy said of the Trojans” quick turnaround. “We shot well from inside and outside the (3-point) stripe. We were focused on coming out and trying to play good basketball in our league opener.”
“Freeman had a breakout game for us,” Udy said. “He played with fire and really played a great game.”
Lower Lake guard Anthony Lucchesi just missed a double-double with 10 points and nine assists. Mike Deakins added 12 points.
Tyler Hunt led Middletown (0-1, 8-10) with 18 points and Jake Strickler added 14 points.
In other boys” action Friday:
Clear Lake 63, St. Helena 54
At Lakeport, Nick Falc-oner”s 3-pointer wiped out a one-point St. Helena advantage and put Clear Lake ahead to stay late in the fourth quarter as the Cardinals beat the visiting Saints in the NCL I South opener for both teams.
Armando Martinez took over the game down the stretch, feeding the ball inside to center Kory Hook, who scored eight of his 16 points in the final period.
“Armando made some beautiful passes and had some key rebounds in the last few minutes,” Clear Lake coach Ken Hook said.
Martinez finished with 13 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists.
Freddy Olloqui added 10 points and Jameson Holder and Brandon White had eight apiece for the Cardinals, who led 33-16 at halftime. St. Helena stormed back in the third quarter and trailed only 41-39 entering the final period.
Hook had nine rebounds for the Cardinals (1-0 South, 11-4).
Cloverdale 84, Upper Lake 50
At Upper Lake, other than Jayce Meri”s 25 points, the Upper Lake Cougars didn”t generate much of a threat in their NCL I South opener against the Cloverdale Eagles.
“We turned the ball over too many times,” Upper Lake coach Forrest Stogner said. “We had 20 turnovers in the first half.”
Cloverdale led 49-26 after the first two quarters. In fact, the Eagles scored at least 20 points in each of the first three quarters.
“Our defense is ungodly terrible,” Stogner said. “We played every defense we knew and we didn”t come close to stopping them.”
Jacob Widener had seven points, eight rebounds, six assists and six steals for Upper Lake (0-1, 4-12).
Rincon Valley 62, Kelseyville 40
At Santa Rosa, the Kelseyville Knights were held to a single point in the second quarter and lost to Rincon Valley Christian in a non-league game.
“We”ve had problems coming out and playing well in the first quarter, but we had maybe our best quarter of basketball in the first quarter,” Kelseyville coach Scott Conrad said of the 17-16 deficit the Knights trailed by after the opening period.
“But as good as our first quarter was, the second quarter was equally bad,” Conrad added.
Wes Stevenson”s 12 points paced Kelseyville (1-13) and Isaac McQueen had 10.
Girls” basketball
Clear Lake 49, St. Helena 41
At St. Helena, Brittany Rumfelt”s 23 points and 14 rebounds powered Clear Lake to a win over the St. Helena Saints in the NCL I South opener for both of these varsity girls” basketball teams.
Clear Lake (1-0 South, 10-5 overall) led 31-21 at halftime and St. Helena was never closer than six points in the second half.
“They got it to 37-31, but we were able to pull away after that,” Clear Lake coach Jen Goff said.
Kaila Sterbank had 14 points and six rebounds for the Cardinals.
Cloverdale 66, Upper Lake 39
At Cloverdale, the Clov-erdale Eagles beat Upper Lake in the NCL I South opener for both teams.
Sierra Higgins” eight points led the Cougars (0-1, 2-14).
