LAKEPORT — Up and up he goes.
Clear Lake”s Ryan Richardson cracked the top 10 on Lake County”s all-time scoring list with 23 points in a 70-51 victory over the Lower Lake Trojans on Friday night during a North Central League I interlock varsity boys” basketball game at Lakeport.
Richardson now has 1,289 points, moving him up to eighth place all-time. He also helped the Cardinals (9-13) beat the Trojans (12-10) for the first time in three tries this season.
“We brought out a lot of intensity and were ready to play,” Clear Lake coach Glenn Wienke said.
While Richardson led the Cardinals in scoring along with pulling down 12 rebounds, two other Clear Lake players played major roles in the win over Lower Lake.
Ryan Grady had a double-double of 10 points and 13 rebounds, including seven offensive boards, and Jason Edwards had nine points, including a pair of 3-pointers.
“Every game he seems to get better,” Wienke said of Edwards. “He does such a good job of distributing the ball to the other kids.”
Clear Lake switched to a press in the final minutes of the first half to break open a close game to that point.
“We generated some turnovers and got some easy layups,” Wienke said.
Clear Lake led 39-27 at halftime. Lower Lake crept to within nine points by the end of the third quarter but the Cardinals put the game away with a 19-9 final period.
“We really hit the boards hard tonight,” Wienke said.
Joe Taylor”s 13 points paced the Trojans, Gage Carlson added 10 and Scott Zandt had nine.
In other boys” action Friday:
Fort Bragg 68, Kelseyville 62 (OT)
At Fort Bragg, a slow start and bad free-throw shooting cost the Kelseyville Knights a chance to even their NCL I North record at 2-2 as they fell to the Fort Bragg Timberwolves in overtime.
Kelseyville (1-3, 8-11) had a four-point lead late in the fourth quarter but couldn”t put the game away at the line.
“We shot ourselves in the foot from the line,” Kelseyville coach Scott Conrad said. “We were 4-for-12 down the stretch.”
Fort Bragg led 20-14 after one quarter, scoring its first 10 points in a span of about 90 seconds, according to Conrad. “After we took that punch in the face we actually played pretty well.”
Fort Bragg (1-2) won its first league game despite allowing four Knights to reach double figures. Peter Wotherspoon and Max Huff led the way with 16 points apiece and Mike Allen and Brandon Lindsay each had 14. Allen and Huff also had 16 and 15 rebounds, respectively.
“I was very pleased with the effort,” Conrad said. “We fought tooth and nail the whole time.”
St. Helena 64, Upper Lake 39
At Upper Lake, the St. Helena Saints gradually pulled away from the Upper Lake Cougars in NCL I South action.
Even though the Cougars (0-4, 5-15) were minus two players (both ejected in the loss to Cloverdale on Tuesday), Upper Lake trailed only 15-13 after one quarter and 32-21 at halftime.
“We played hard,” Upper Lake coach Forrest Stogner said. “We played good in spurts and we played bad in spurts … and the bad outweighed the good.”
Joe Valdez made his varsity debut as a starter and pulled down 10 rebounds and scored his first two varsity points.
“He did real well,” Stogner said. “It”s a big difference when you move up from JV to varsity.”
Mike Dawson led the Cougars with 10 points and Mike Cox added eight points plus a team-best 16 rebounds and five blocks.
“Cox tore the boards up,” Stogner said.
Tyler Warren added eight points and Billy Armstrong had seven.
Girls” basketball
Lower Lake 64, Clear Lake 29
At Lower Lake, the Lower Lake Trojans pressed the life out of the Clear Lake Cardinals with a 20-4 third quarter and rolled to an easy NCL I interlock victory.
“We got a lot of steals and a lot of layups in the third quarter,” Lower Lake coach Jim Salmina said.
The Trojans (14-8) entered the second half in plenty of foul trouble, according to Salmina, but played through it.
“They did a great job in that third quarter,” he said.
Veronica Wilder led the Trojans with 19 points and Jonesha Beasley had 16 points, eight rebounds and five steals. Tashee Denson added 11 points despite being in foul trouble most of the game.
Salmina also credited Jessica Beckwith with a strong game off the bench as she had five rebounds and four points.
“She did a nice job,” Salmina said.
Katie Reynolds” eight points paced the Cardinals (6-13).
Upper Lake at St. Helena (postponed)
At St. Helena, a scheduled NCL I South game between the St. Helena Saints and Upper Lake Cougars was postponed because Upper Lake had only four healthy players going into Friday”s action.
The game will be replayed at a later date.
