UPPER LAKE — Veronica Wilder entered play Tuesday night against Upper Lake 130 points shy of 1,000 for her career. After watching the Lower Lake senior play in the first half against his Cougars, coach Mike Smith said he was thankful for one thing.
“At the rate she was going I thought she was going to hit 1,000 tonight,” Smith said.
Wilder scored all 18 of her points in the first half as the Lower Lake Trojans, after storming to a 45-9 halftime lead, let the reserves take over in a 63-21 North Central League I interlock girls” basketball win over the Cougars at Upper Lake.
“Jim did a good job of keeping it in a sportsmanlike way,” Smith said of coaching counterpart Jim Salmina of Lower Lake.
While the Cougars (3-10) were outmanned from the start against the Trojans (9-7), Smith said he was disappointed with his team”s overall play. Facing Lower Lake”s pressure defense, Upper Lake held its own in the opening minutes before falling apart.
“We didn”t respond well at all,” Smith said. “A lot of no hustle is what we did in this game. I was disappointed.”
Lower Lake led 23-9 after the first quarter before blanking Upper Lake 22-0 in the second quarter.
“They looked real relaxed,” Smith said of the Trojans. “They struggled early to get into the flow but then all of a sudden the offense started flowing. Wilder hit a couple of threes and before you knew it they had 23 points.”
Wilder sank a pair of 3-pointers in each of the first two quarters.
“They can score,” Smith said. “They do a good job of passing inside and finding the open man. It”s a pleasure to watch them.”
Jonesha Beasley and Shadae White scored 12 points apiece for the Trojans.
Kelly Strong and Katherine Edmonds paced the Cougars with nine points apiece. Mara Hesterberg, a freshman, sank a 3-pointer in her varsity debut.
Hesterberg joined the varsity after the junior varsity game was forfeited to Lower Lake. Upper Lake could not suit up enough players to field a team.
In other interlock girls” action Tuesday:
St. Helena 47, Kelseyville 24
At St. Helena, Maddy Densberger”s 19 points propelled the St. Helena Saints past the Kelseyville Knights, who were led by Ashley Johnson”s 11 points, including three 3-pointers.
Pounding the ball inside, the Saints were able to build a 19-6 first-quarter lead.
“The height situation,” Kelseyville coach Deanna Goff said. “Just about everybody we play is taller than us.”
Mary Brown had seven points for the Knights (7-7) and Liz Berry led the team with eight rebounds.
Cloverdale 69, Middletown 29
At Cloverdale, the Middletown Mustangs hung around for a half before the Cloverdale Eagles pulled away for the win behind 22 points from sophomore center Morgan Carlson.
The Eagles (12-4) led 18-8 after one quarter and 34-15 at halftime.
“We did play with them, but they have great shooters from the perimeter,” Middletown coach Marnin Pyzer said of the Eagles, who sank six 3-pointers on the night. “And they have that big girl (Carlson) to throw the ball into now. They have the inside and outside game.”
Jodi Mitchell”s 11 points paced Middletown (4-11) and Kayla Farr added eight points, including both of the Mustangs” 3-pointers.
“They”re hitting threes and we”re trying to hit twos,” Pyzer said. “I think sometimes they”re willing to give you a shot if they can get back down the court and get a three. They have some quality 3-point shooters.
“But we played as hard as we could. We knew we had a high mountain to climb and the girls didn”t give up. I”m proud of them,” Pyzer added.
Willits 62, Clear Lake 22
At Willits, the Willits Wolverines led 26-4 after one quarter and never looked back against the Clear Lake Cardinals.
“They came out really aggressive,” Clear Lake coach Kory Reynolds said of the Wolverines. “It was pretty physical. We spent a lot of time on the ground.”
Jessica Asbury”s 13 points paced Clear Lake (4-7).
Boys” basketball
Middletown 60, Cloverdale 32
At Middletown, Luke Humphrey came off the bench to score a team-leading 19 points and the Middletown Mustangs rolled past the Cloverdale Eagles for a fourth straight victory.
“I was happy to see him step up,” Middletown coach G.J. Rockwell said of Humphrey, a junior. “He knows his role and comes in and does it.”
Humphrey had all five of the Mustangs” 3-pointers, going 5-for-8 from beyond the arc.
Middletown”s defense clamped down tight on the Eagles, who were held to single-digit point totals in three of the four quarters.
“They played incredible defense tonight,” Rockwell said.
Part of that was controlling the boards, which Chris Oatman (nine rebounds) and John-Wesley Davis (eight rebounds) did. Davis also finished with 13 points. Jereomy Hoeffer led the team with six assists and five steals.
After a slow start — Middletown led just 9-8 after one quarter — the Mustangs began to pick up the pace on offense. They led 27-18 at halftime and 42-24 entering the final period.
“We missed a ton of layups in the first half,” Rockwell said. “I stopped counting after 15.”
Middletown is 9-5.
Lower Lake 70, Upper Lake 31
At Lower Lake, Joe Taylor led the way with 23 points and five assists as the Lower Lake Trojans rolled past the Upper Lake Cougars in NCL I interlock action.
“I thought we played just real good team basketball,” Lower Lake coach Marty Udy said. “The points were distributed around to everyone.”
The Trojans (4-12) led 23-9 after one quarter and 54-17 at the half against an Upper Lake team they struggled to beat last month in the Record-Bee Hoop Classic at Lakeport (Lower Lake won 52-40).
“We took another step up tonight,” Udy said. “It”s important to be playing your best basketball going into league and that”s two good games in a row for us.”
Alphonsos Daniels added 10 points, Scott Zandt had eight and Devante Scott, Josh Benfante and Jeff Davis six apiece for Lower Lake.
Billy Armstrong”s 11 points paced the Cougars (1-12), losers of 11 straight. Tyler Warren added six points.
“We”re struggling to put 32 minutes of basketball together,” Upper Lake coach Chris Cisneros said.
St. Helena 78, Kelseyville 65
At Kelseyville, Cole Ballentine tossed in 28 points and the St. Helena Saints handed the Kelseyville Knights a loss in NCL I interlock play.
All five of Kelseyville”s losses this season have come at home. The Knights fell to 10-5 overall despite 24 points by Mike Davis and 23 by Dustin Thaxton.
“We got ourselves into a hole right away and they came out on fire,” Kelseyville assistant coach Rich Facey said. “We had a lot of shots rattle out ? the whole first half they rattled out,” Facey added.
St. Helena led 21-12 after one quarter and 39-25 at halftime. Kelseyville rallied in the fourth quarter to make it a six-point game but couldn”t get any closer.
“In the second half we had a big-time effort from the kids,” Facey said.
Ballentine, a 6-foot-2 senior, hurt the Knights from the field and from the free-throw line, where he went 8-for-9 for the game, including 6-for-6 in the second quarter.
