LAKEPORT — Even with two of his top players on the bench during the overtime period, the Upper Lake Cougars found a way to win on Thursday, beating the Lower Lake Trojans 53-50 in the junior varsity division at the 17th annual Record-Bee Hoop Classic at Lakeport.
Upper Lake improved to 2-1 in tournament play with the victory and faces the Kelseyville Knights today at 3 p.m. in its final game. Depending on how the rest of the round-robin tournament plays out — it concludes Saturday — an Upper Lake win over Kelseyville could secure a trophy for the Cougars and first-year coach Lupeli “Duke” Faleagafulu.
Upper Lake”s JVs have won only one trophy in the history of the tournament, that for finishing second in 2005, also at Lakeport.
“We lost our composure at the end (of regulation),” Faleagafulu said of the 45-37 lead the Cougars let slip away in the final 2:45 of the fourth quarter. “We got it back in the overtime.”
And they got it back with their leading scorer on the night, Alex Castillo (14 points), out of the game with five fouls.
“He”s an all-around good player,” Faleagafulu said of Castillo. “He”s usually very strong on defense ? he averages four steals a game. Tonight he had the offense going.”
Wesley Thaxton added 12 points and KJ Anderson, the Cougars” leading scorer in each of their first two tournament games, had nine.
“If you would have told me before the game that we would hold him (Anderson) to nine points, I would have liked our chances to win,” Lower Lake coach David Graham said.
Jesse Meldrum”s 16 points paced the Trojans. Richard Tucker added 14 points and Chad Mattos had 11.
In the late JV game:
Middletown 60, Clear Lake 34
Middletown center Blaine Amos scored the first 10 points of the game as the Mustangs, two-time defending Hoop Classic champions, rolled past Clear Lake.
Middletown had a 19-0 lead before the Cardinals finally scored on a Gabe Strong free throw with 3:34 left in the first period. The Mustangs led 23-7 by quarter”s end.
Amos led all scorers with 25 points and Tyler Rockwell added eight as Middletown improved to 2-0 in the tournament standings.
Danny Partida”s 13 points paced Clear Lake, now 1-2, and Strong added eight.
