UPPER LAKE — Leading by six late in the fourth quarter against the visiting St. Helena Saints, the Upper Lake Cougars” 15-game losing streak was less than a minute away from being history on Thursday night during a North Central League I South varsity boys” basketball game.
Unfortunately for the Cougars, those last few seconds of regulation weren”t kind. St. Helena tied the game on a twisting, fallaway 3-pointer by Austin Saladin with time running out to send the game into overtime and the Saints prevailed 53-51 in overtime, extending Upper Lake”s skid to 16 straight.
“This is a killer, a killer, we should have won that game,” Upper Lake coach Forrest Stogner said of loss No. 16 in a row.
Although Upper Lake (0-5 South, 3-18 overall) converted 11 of 18 free throws for the game, the Cougars” inability to make free throws in the fourth quarter and overtime (they were a combined 5-for-10) proved to be the difference.
“You can point to a lot of things, but I think you have to point to that,” Stogner said. “We didn”t get the ball into the right guy”s hands.”
Trailing 49-46 with 15 seconds left in the fourth quarter, St. Helena had trouble setting up a shot against Upper Lake”s man-to-man defense. With time running out, Saladin broke for the corner.
“He caught the ball on his side and wasn”t even facing the basket,” Stogner said. “He spun and shot the ball. Jayce Meri had a hand in his face, was right on him ? there was no way that ball was going in.”
But Saladin”s shot found the net to tie the game at 49.
Upper Lake had a couple of seconds left and did get a shot off before the buzzer sounded, but it was the off the mark.
St. Helena outscored Upper Lake 4-2 in the overtime, making a basket and two free throws to just two free throws by the Cougars.
Dalton Steptoe”s 18 points, 15 rebounds and five assists weren”t enough for the Cougars, who committed a season-low 10 turnovers. Meri and Kyle Coleman each had 11 points and Brandon Mendoza added eight.
“It”s the best we”ve run our offense all season,” Stogner said.
Fort Bragg 60, Kelseyville 37
At Fort Bragg, the Kelseyville Knights connected on just 15 off 55 shots from the field and were 1-for-10 from the free-throw line in the first half while falling to undefeated NCL I North leader Fort Bragg (5-0).
“It was a better game than what the scoreboard was showing,” Kelseyville coach Scott Conrad said. “We competed with them, we played hard, but we just couldn”t make enough shots.”
Fort Bragg led 31-13 by halftime.
“We had good shots,” Conrad said. “And they (Timberwolves) played good, solid defense. We just couldn”t get the shots to fall and in that regard it was frustrating.”
Isaac McQueen”s 14 points and four blocked shots paced the Knights, now 0-5 in the North standings and 10-10 overall. Mike Duman added 10 points and eight rebounds, and Nick Schaefer had four points and four assists.
Kelseyville hosts Willits (2-2) tonight.
