LOWER LAKE — Darlena White just missed a double-double with 14 points and nine rebounds as the Lower Lake Trojans notched win No. 1 in their new gym, 54-45, over the Kelseyville Knights in a North Central League I North varsity girls” basketball game on Friday in Lower Lake.
While Darlena White and young sister April (10 points and six rebound) played their usual strong games for the Trojans (1-1 North, 6-13 overall), Lower Lake picked up key contributions from Emmalina Illia and Miranda Parks, both with eight points, and from Amber Daniels, who had seven.
Illia came off the Lower Lake bench to score all eight of her points in the second quarter as the Trojans went up 26-25 at halftime. The Trojans pushed their lead to as many as 12 points in the third quarter when Parks went off for all eight of her points.
“Those two in particular played a great game for us tonight,” Carpenter said.
Kelseyville (1-2, 11-9) cut the deficit to six points early in the fourth quarter when Amber Daniels buried a critical 3-pointer for Lower Lake.
“Kelseyville had a little run going and that ended it,” Carpenter said.
While the Trojans finished with five 3-pointers, Kelseyville”s Monique Santana had all four of Kelseyville”s treys. Skyler Olsen”s 14 points paced the Knights and Amanda Mueller added 13.
In other girls” games Friday:
Clear Lake 39, St. Vincent 32
At Petaluma, Kaila Ster-bank hit one of her three 3-pointers early in the fourth quarter and the Clear Lake Cardinals pulled away to beat the St. Vincent Mustangs in NCL I South action.
The two teams were tied at 28 entering the final period.
Clear Lake (1-1, 7-9) held a five-point lead down the stretch before securing its first league win.
“We weren”t in foul trouble in the fourth quarter, so we were able to play aggressive defense and not have to worry about them being in the bonus or double bonus,” Clear Lake coach Jennifer Goff said. “In fact, they had to foul us.”
Sterbank”s 14 points, five assists and three steals paced the Cardinals. Briana Butcher added 10 points and eight rebounds, while Rylie Gabehart pulled down a team-best 10 boards.
Middletown 39, Fort Bragg 29
At Fort Bragg, junior Amber Preusser scored a career-best 12 points and junior Jenny McGee added 10 points as the Middletown Mustangs improved to 2-0 in the NCL I North standings by beating the Fort Bragg Timberwolves.
Middletown (2-0, 12-5) won its fifth straight and its seventh in its last eight without starting center Kelsey Guzman, who missed the game for disciplinary reasons.
“She (Preusser) stepped up to the challenge,” Middletown coach Marnin Pyzer said. “She shot a great percentage from the line and the floor. She took charge out there.”
Willits 65, Upper Lake 29
At Upper Lake, Willits rolled past the Upper Lake Cougars in NCL I interlock action.
“They”re a good ballclub,” Upper Lake coach Donnie Meri said of the Wolverines. “They”re experienced and they can get up and down the floor. They threw five defenses against us and two presses.”
Katy DeVries” eight points paced Upper Lake (6-13).
Boys” basketball
Kelseyville 81, Lower Lake 53
At Kelseyville, the Kelseyville Knights had one of their best shooting performances of the season in handily beating the Lower Lake Trojans in NCL I North boys” action.
The Knights (2-1, 7-12) took over sole possession of second place in the North standings with the win.
“We obviously shot the ball well in the first half and so did Lower Lake,” Kelseyville coach Scott Conrad said of the Knights” 35-32 halftime advantage.
But while the Trojans cooled off from the field in the second half, the Knights turned it up a notch, scoring 23 points in each of the third and fourth quarters.
“I think we rebounded the ball tonight as well as we have all year,” Conrad said. “What defensive rebounding leads to is fastbreaks and we had the fastbreak going quite well.”
All 11 Kelseyville players scored. Mike Davis led the way with 23 points, Peter Wotherspoon added 17 and Hipolito Perez had 14.
Paul Bailey scored 16 of his team-leading 18 points in the first half for Lower Lake (0-2, 4-15).
While he wasn”t among the scoring leaders for Kel-seyville, senior Mike Duman had five points, 10 rebounds, five assists and five steals.
“Best game I”ve seen him play,” Conrad said of Duman.
Willits 61, Upper Lake 46
At Upper Lake, the Upper Lake Cougars didn”t play much defense and didn”t get much offense other than Brandon Mendoza”s 23 points as they fell to the Willits Wolverines in NCL I interlock action.
“Tuesday I said we played the worst defense we”ve ever played ? and I was wrong,” Upper Lake coach Forrest Stogner said.
Willits took control of the game with 14-4 first quarter and never looked back..
“We just didn”t come ready to play,” Stogner said.
Dillon Gonzales and Kyle Coleman each had nine points for the Cougars (9-9).
