DURHAM — Not even a raucous crowd that made it impossible to hear at times could stop MVP Veronica Wilder and the Lower Lake Trojans from rallying time and time again to beat host Durham 56-50 in the championship game of the Durham Tournament on Saturday night.
“To pull through in a game like that was really huge,” Lower Lake coach Jim Salmina said. “We could have folded anytime but I told them to keep fighting. They had to overcome a lot of obstacles.”
A large group of vocal Durham fans positioned themselves behind the Lower Lake bench.
“They were talking to my players,” said Salmina, who asked an official to intervene to no avail. “It was like, OK, we”re just going to have to deal with it,” Salmina said.
Wilder, the Trojans” point guard, picked up her fourth foul in the second quarter, which came as quite a surprise to Salmina.
“I didn”t know she had three fouls (when she picked up the fourth),” Salmina said. “They (Lower Lake book) tried to tell me but I couldn”t hear.”
Durham went into halftime with a 27-24 lead but the Trojans, even with Wilder on the bench in the third quarter, battled back to go up 40-38 after three quarters.
“Mayra Nava did a great job off the bench,” Salmina said. “She gave me six great minutes in that third quarter.”
April White and Tashee Denson also played major roles in the win, according to Salmina.
White had 11 points and 11 rebounds while Denson led the team with 15 points, hitting two of her 3-pointers in the third quarter.
“White would have been All-Tournament if she had played three games like that,” Salmina said. “She played out of her mind.”
Katie Swalve also came off the Lower Lake bench to score eight points and block three shots in the fourth quarter that were critical to the game”s outcome, according to Salmina.
Jonesha Beasley had 10 points for the Trojans and joined Wilder and Denson on the All-Tournament team.
Lower Lake takes an 8-2 record into the McKinleyville Tourn-ament on Thursday.
“I was hoping for 7-6 in our first 13 games. This team is playing way past my expectations,” Salmina said.
In other girls” tournament basketball action on Saturday:
Clear Lake 30, Rio Vista 22
At St. Helena, the Clear Lake Cardinals beat Rio Vista in the consolation championship game of the Silver Oak Tournament.
Mari Jordan turned in her best game of the season for the Cardinals (4-6) with 10 points, 11 rebounds and five steals. Briana Butcher added eight points and was named to the All-Tournament team.
Clear Lake outscored Rio Vista 11-4 in the fourth quarter to break open a one-point game after three periods. Eight of Jordan”s points came in the second half.
“It wasn”t pretty but we got a win,” Clear Lake coach Jennifer Goff said.
Boys” basketball
Lower Lake 55, Justin-Siena 50 (OT)
At Healdsburg, Gage Carflson”s three-point play with 1:30 left in overtime helped lift the Lower Lake Trojans to a win over Justin-Siena in the consolation championship game of the Redwood Empire Invitational. It was Lower Lake”s second win over Justin-Siena in six days.
“Carlson drove the lane, scored and was fouled,” Lower Lake coach Marty Udy said. “He hit the free throw to give us a three-point lead. That gave us a little breathing room. It was just a huge play.”
Lower Lake hit six free throws down the stretch ? two each by Jaymen Richardson, Joe Taylor and All-Tournament selection Forrest Davis ? to hold off the Braves.
Richardson finished with 13 points and 19 rebounds and Carlson had 15 points.
Lower Lake let a nine-point lead slip away with six minutes remaining in regulation.
“I thought we were going to run away with it,” Udy said.
Middletown 61, Clear Lake 51
At Healdsburg, even with John Hays and Chris Oatman out of the lineup, the Middletown Mustangs defeated the Clear Lake Cardinals in the seventh-place game of the Redwood Empire Invitational.
“We found a lot of energy,” Middletown coach Mike Mullin said. “I”ve been waiting for that.”
Jereomy Hoefer turned in a strong performance while replacing Hays. He finished with nine points, nine rebounds and seven assists. Jacob Anderson also came up big with 15 points and seven rebounds.
“He was big for us, he came on pretty strong,” Mullin said of Anderson.
Kyle Harmyk”s 17 points paced the Mustangs and John-Wesley Davis added 12 points, 10 rebounds and four assists.
Ryan Richardson”s 15 points led the Cardinals and Jason Edwards had 12. Richardson is 50 points shy of 1,000 for his career.
Middletown outscored Clear Lake 22-14 in the fourth quarter to break open a close game.
Upper Lake 67, Kelseyville 50
At Upper Lake, And-rew O”Meara scored all 18 of his team-leading points in the first half as the Upper Lake Cougars roared past the Kelseyville Knights in the final round of the round-robin Upper Lake Tournament for varsity and junior varsity boys” teams.
Eight of O”Meara”s points came in the first quarter when the Cougars opened up a 22-6 lead.
“He hit a high percentage of his shots,” Upper Lake coach Forrest Stogner said. “I don”t think he took a shot in the second half.”
Mike Dawson added 11 points and Mike Cox had eight points and 13 rebounds as the Cougars finished in a three-way tie with Kelseyville and Anderson Valley at 1-2 in the varsity standings. College Prep routed Anderson Valley 76-30 to go 3-0 and repeat as champion. Kelseyville was awarded second place on a points tiebreaker.
Peter Wotherspoon”s 19 points led the Knights and Steven Grossner added nine.
Wotherspoon and O”Meara were named to the All-Tournament team.
In the junior varsity division, Kelseyville beat Upper Lake 56-46 to win the tournament title with a 3-0 record. Anderson Valley edged College Prep 43-42 in the other JV contest.
Kelseyville”s Deven Call was named tournament MVP and teammate Oscar Lopez was named to the All-Tourney team along with Upper Lake”s Joe Valdez.
