LOWER LAKE — Coming off a tough three-game stretch in McKinleyville, the 2-8 Lower Lake High School varsity girls” basketball team seemed like an unlikely candidate to win the Lake County Tournament, which wrapped up its week-long run Saturday night in Lower Lake.
“They were all good, close games and you could see we were getting there,” Lower Lake coach Andrew Carpenter said of the Trojans” 0-3 run last month at the McKinleyville Tournament where they lost to Arcata, Amador Valley and Healdsburg.
Get there the Trojans did during the Lake County Tournament, beating Middletown, Upper Lake and finally Clear Lake on Saturday, 58-43, to wrap up the varsity championship.
“We kind of put it all together this past week with three solid games,” Carpenter said.
And that wasn”t even the best part, according to Carpenter.
“Watching our young players grow, that was the best part,” Carpenter said of sophomore Veronica Wilder, who was named to the All-Tournament team, and of freshman April White, whose 19 points paced the Trojans in their title-clinching victory against the Cardinals.
April”s older sister, Darlena White, added 14 points in the Clear Lake win. She was named the most valuable player.
“We played a pretty solid ballgame,” Carpenter said. “Clear Lake is awfully fast and they shoot the ball well.”
Both of the White sisters created match-up problems for the Cardinals, especially Darlena.
“Darlena was strong in the paint and she created some tough defensive situation for them,” Carpenter said. “She always gets the big rebound and the big basket.”
Lower Lake outscored Clear Lake 25-16 in the second half after taking a 33-27 lead into halftime.
Katie Reynolds” 13 points paced the Cardinals and All-Tournament selection Kaila Sterbank had nine.
In other action Saturday:
Middletown 44, Upper Lake 21
Middletown secured second place in the tournament with an easy win over Upper Lake. The Mustangs won two of their three games, losing only to Lower Lake.
Kelsey Guzman led the Mustangs with 16 points and Jenny McGee added 10. Guzman and Amber Preusser were named to the All-Tournament team.
Jackie Lovrin, Felicia Valdez and Jessica Swaney scored four points each to lead Upper Lake. Katy DeVries was named to the All-Tournament team.
JV division
Kelseyville beat Clear Lake 49-34 and Middletown defeated Upper Lake 47-39 to create a two-way tie atop the junior varsity standings, with both Kelseyville and Middletown finishing at 3-1. Kelseyville won the head-to-head tiebreaker and the championship.
Mary Brown scored 12 points and Liz Berry had nine to lead Kelseyville. Berry was named tournament MVP and Brown was honored on the All-Tournament team.
All-Tourney selection Vanessa Tullos led the Cardinals with 16 points.
In Middletown”s victory over Upper Lake, Jodie Mitchell led the victorious Mustangs with 15 points and Kaitlyn Agapoff added 13. Mitchell was named to the All-Tournament team as was Upper Lake”s Angeline Gomez, whose 18 points powered the Cougars.
In another JV game on Saturday, Lower Lake secured third place with a 48-41 victory over Clear Lake. All-Tournament selection Jonesha Beasley led Lower Lake with 25 points, while Tullos answered with 25 points for the Cardinals.
Lower Lake finished 2-2.
