UPPER LAKE — Facing a 48-16 halftime deficit, the Clear Lake Cardinals put together one last solid quarter, scoring 28 points in the third period during an 85-53 loss to the Cloverdale Eagles in the opening round of the North Central League I South postseason boys” basketball tournament on Thursday evening at Upper Lake High School.
Cloverdale, the undefeated South champion during the regular season, advances to the championship game tonight at 8 p.m. against St. Vincent.
“John”s a great coach and has them really playing well,” Clear Lake coach Ken Hook said of longtime Eagles” coach John Gastineau.
Hook said he was proud of his squad, and especially his six seniors, for not giving up after the Eagles worked over the Cardinals pretty good in the first half.
“The kids played inspired ball and they (Eagles) still had their first string in,” Hook said of the Cardinals” 28-20 push in the third period.
Armando Martinez scored a team-best 18 points in his final game in a Clear Lake uniform. Fellow seniors Jameson Holder and Rawley Butler added 13 and seven points, respectively, as the Cardinals close out the 2007-08 season at 12-13.
Also playing their final game for Clear Lake were Zane Butler, George Weiss and Tyler Glazier.
“The seniors finished like they played their whole careers ? hard,” Hook said. “We showed some character in the second half.”
In other postseason tournament action Thursday:
Fort Bragg 61, Lower Lake 46
At Kelseyville, the Lower Lake Trojans had a six-point lead against NCL I North regular-season champion Fort Bragg with 4 ? minutes remaining in the game before the roof caved in against the Timberwolves.
“I”ve never seen anything like it before,” Lower Lake coach Marty Udy said of the game”s final 3 ? minutes.
“With 4 ? minutes left we had a significant happening,” Udy said. “Seven players dressed for the game and David Clark had four fouls. But Mike Deakins picked up his fifth foul right around then ? and that hurt.”
Fort Bragg closed the gap and drew even with the Trojans, who then melted down, committing two technical fouls.
“They shot like eight free throws in a row and I think they hit just about all of them,” Udy said.
It was still a close game with three minutes left but Ian Butler hit three straight baskets and Matt Freitas (17 points) added a 3-pointer to push the Timberwolves to victory. They ended up outscoring Lower Lake 33-11 in the final period.
“They were 11-for-16 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter,” Udy said. “That”s just pretty much unheard of.”
A frustrating fourth quarter capped a frustrating final game and season for the Trojans, who had higher expectations than their final 13-12 record.
“It”s frustrating because for 3 ? quarters we were right where we wanted to be,” Udy said. “We couldn”t have expected more playing a quality opponent like Fort Bragg. Then we just melted down.”
Butler and Brad White finished with 12 points each as the Timberwolves (19-7) advance to tonight”s championship game against Willits at 8 p.m.
Kevin Freeman scored 15 points, including four 3-pointers, in his final outing for the Trojans. Clark and A.J. Harris each had eight points and Deakins finished with seven.
Girls” basketball
NCL I South regular-season champion Cloverdale beat Upper Lake 59-35 in an opening-round game at Upper Lake and NCL I North regular-season champion Fort Bragg defeated Middletown at Kelseyville.
Individual scoring was not reported to the Record-Bee.
In tonight”s games, it will be Kelseyville against Fort Bragg at 6:30 p.m. in Kelseyville in the North championship game, and Cloverdale and St. Helena at 6:30 p.m. in Upper Lake in the South championship game.
The North Coast Section at-large and seeding meetings take place on Sunday in Divisions I-V and the brackets will be announced Sunday afternoon. The NCS playoffs begin Tuesday or Wednesday depending on division.
