MIDDLETOWN — Go ahead and double-team Middletown High School senior center Kelsey Guzman. Chances are she”s go to score anyway.
Guzman, the top scorer among Lake County girls, poured in a season-high 25 points Tuesday night as the Middletown Mustangs beat the Upper Lake Cougars 53-25 in a North Central League I interlock varsity girls” basketball game at Middletown.
“They double-teamed her and it worked for a while,” Middletown coach Marnin Pyzer said.
But Guzman took over the game in the third quarter, scoring 10 of Middletown”s 21 points in the period as the Mustangs moved out to a commanding 40-18 lead.
“She”s good at getting offensive boards and putting them back up, it”s a strength of hers,” Pyzer said. “You can”t coach that.”
Middletown, a winner of three straight and five of its last six, improved to 10-5 on the season. Upper Lake, led by Katy DeVries” 10 points, fell to 5-11.
Kelsey Welton had eight points for the Mustangs.
In other interlock action Tuesday:
Cloverdale 44, Kelseyville 32
At Cloverdale, the Eagles” man-to-man pressure defense took its toll on Kelseyville in the second quarter as Cloverdale outscored the Knights 20-6 in the period to open up a 31-11 halftime lead.
“They were the quickest team we”ve seen,” Kelseyville coach Caitlin Andrus said. “They were all over the place. They got a hand on everything.”
Kelseyville (10-7) battled back in the second half and got as close as 10 points.
“We hung in there. If we would have given up, they would have annihilated us, but we didn”t. I”m proud of them for that,” Andrus said.
Amanda Mueller”s 10 points paced the Knights.
St. Vincent 44, Lower Lake 41
At Petaluma, Lower Lake played a strong fourth quarter but still came up short against the St. Vincent Mustangs.
Trailing 31-21 after three periods, the Trojans (5-11) cut the deficit to one point and had the ball with 14 seconds remaining.
“We ran a play to Darlena White on the post but she missed the look,” Lower Lake coach Andrew Carpenter said.
Darlena White”s 13 points paced the Trojans, April White added 12 and Veronica Wilder had eight.
St. Vincent outscored Lower Lake in each of the first three quarters.
