MIDDLETOWN — Feeling no ill effects from their win-then-loss to Willits on Tuesday, the Lower Lake Trojans beat the Middletown Mustangs 60-39 in North Central League I North varsity girls” basketball action on Friday in Middletown.
Lower Lake closes out league play at 5-3 and will either finish second behind league champion Willits or tied for second with Kelseyville. The Trojans are 17-9 overall under first-year coach Jim Salmina.
On Tuesday, the Trojans beat Willits 59-53 in overtime only to give the win back on Wednesday when Salmina found a scoring error on the game film. That error gave the Wolverines a 44-42 victory in regulation.
“The response has been incredible,” Salmina said of the reaction to the events following the Willits game. “I haven”t heard a negative thing yet. I want to thank everyone for their support.”
The Trojans had a 20-10 lead after one quarter against Middletown and settled into a half-court game the remainder of the night, according to Middletown coach Marnin Pyzer.
“He was very nice about it,” Pyzer said of Salmina”s willingness not to run against the Mustangs, who were without one of their top players. “He could have picked it up at anytime but he didn”t and I appreciate it.
“They”re a good team and have a good bench,” Pyzer added. “We were pretty tired.”
Tashee Denson scored a season-high 19 points and hit five of the Trojans” 10 3-pointers on the night.
“She about ripped the net off,” Salmina said of Denson”s hot hand from the floor. “We came out with a lot of energy and nobody dropped their heads (after the Willits game).”
Veronica Wilder had 10 points for Lower Lake and Amber Daniels had eight points, eight rebounds and five steals.
Alexis Rockwell”s 11 points paced Middle-town, now 1-6 in the North and 4-20 overall.
“They gave it all they had,” Pyzer said of the Mustangs.
In other girls” action Friday:
Kelseyville 49, St. Vincent 41
At Petaluma, the Kelseyville Knights played a strong third quarter and went on to beat the St. Vincent Mustangs in NCL I interlock action.
Outscoring St. Vincent 16-11 in the third period allowed the Knights (15-10) to push their lead into double digits entering the final period. The Mustangs were never closer than eight points down the stretch.
“We played very good defense in the third quarter, which made our offense play better,” Kelseyville coach Caitlin Andrus said.
Ashley Mueller scored six of her 10 points in the third period and Liz Berry hit two of her four 3-pointers in the quarter. Berry also hit two 3-pointers in the first quarter as the Knights opened up a 15-10 lead. She finished with 12 points. Skyler Olsen led the team with 15.
Cloverdale 62, Upper Lake 25
At Upper Lake, the Cloverdale Eagles used a 28-point second quarter to pull away from the Upper Lake Cougars in NCL I South action.
Cloverdale (7-0) led 40-13 at halftime.
Upper Lake (1-6, 8-17) received a major scare 30 seconds into halftime when Ashley Arroyo collapsed and had to be taken to Sutter Lakeside Hospital in Lakeport.
“She didn”t pass out, she wilted,” Upper Lake coach Don Meri said of Arroyo. “She could hear us talking to her, but she couldn”t respond.”
Meri visited Arroyo at the hospital following the game and said she was “awake, talking and smiling.”
Felicia Valdez”s nine points paced Upper Lake, Katherine Edmonds added eight and Taryn Re had seven.
Boys” basketball
Kelseyville 79, St. Vincent 75
At Kelseyville, the Kelseyville Knights hit nine of 10 free throws down the stretch, including two technical free throws by Brandon Lindsay, and beat the St. Vincent Mustangs in a fast-paced NCL I interlock contest.
“They wanted to play fast and we like to play fast,” Kelseyville coach Scott Conrad said. “There were a lot of possessions.”
Kelseyville (11-13) built a 15-point lead in the third quarter only to watch St. Vincent close to within two points with two minutes left in the game.
But the Knights held on thanks to their free-throw shooting.
“We”ve been in a lot of closes games and the ones we win are the ones we make a lot of free throws,” Conrad said. “The ones we lose are the ones we don”t.”
Peter Wotherspoon”s 25 points paced the Knights and Max Huff added 21 points and 11 rebounds. Mike Allen added nine points and 10 rebounds and Lindsay finished with 13 points.
“Allen played a great offensive game,” Conrad said. “He ended up with the ball on breaks quite a bit and made a lot of good decisions.”
Cloverdale 76, Upper Lake 33
At Cloverdale, after unsuccessfully trying to slow things down in the first quarter, the Upper Lake Cougars switched back to a running offense against the Cloverdale Eagles in NCL I South action.
“Our goal was to hold them under 80 and we did that,” Upper Lake coach Forrest Stogner said.
Cloverdale beat Upper Lake 109-30 in their first league meeting at Upper Lake.
“We tried slow ball and it didn”t work,” Stogner said of the Cougars milking the possession clock each time down the floor.
“We”d pass and move, screen and move until the clock was down to 10 seconds,” Stogner said.
The Eagles (7-0) didn”t seem to mind and led 24-4 after one quarter.
“It wasn”t working so I told them after the first quarter ?let”s get out and run,”” Stogner added.
The Eagles led 41-15 at halftime and 63-28 after three quarters.
Brandon Bills led Upper Lake (0-7, 5-20) with 11 points and Tyler Warren added eight points and eight rebounds. Mike Cox had four points, 11 rebounds and three blocks.
Jared Domenichelli”s 21 points paced Cloverdale and Robby Rowland had 18.
Upper Lake closes out its league and regular-season schedule Tuesday in St. Helena (1-6). If the Cougars win, they”ll advance to the NCL I South postseason tournament on Thursday in Petaluma as the No. 4 seed and play Cloverdale again. If they lose, their season is over.
“The kids have something to shoot for,” Stogner said.
