KELSEYVILLE — Even with a starter in early foul trouble, the Lower Lake Trojans turned back the Ferndale Wildcats 50-37 in the winner”s semifinal round of the 40th annual Stokes Invitational basketball tournament Friday night in Kelseyville.
Lower Lake, now 2-0 in tournament action and on the season, advances to tonight”s girls” championship game and will play powerful Piedmont at 6 p.m.
“We need to come out and play hard the whole way,” Lower Lake coach Jim Salmina said. “I don”t want to see anyone letting up or I”ll take them out.”
With Kelsie Shoffeitt in early foul trouble against Ferndale (the senior fouled out with just five points), Salmina went to his deep bench and the Trojans hardly missed a beat.
“I have real confidence in my bench and I had to go to them a lot,” Salmina said. “I”m not afraid to see any of them out there. I had a good effort out of a lot of kids tonight.”
Nine different Trojans reached the scoring column led by April White”s 12 points and Shadae White”s 11. April White also pulled down 15 rebounds while Shadae White had six. Point guard Sara Sanders added seven points, five rebounds, three assists and three steals.
Lower Lake led 29-19 at halftime.
Megan Early”s 12 points paced Ferndale and Mackenzie Burgess had nine.
In other girls” games Friday:
Piedmont 69, Cloverdale 29
Piedmont improved to 2-0 in Stokes play with a dominating victory against the Cloverdale Eagles. The Highlanders led 44-18 by halftime.
Lauren Seyranian scored 21 points, including five 3-pointers, to power Piedmont. Bailey Thompson added 14 points and Jenae Gonzales and Georgia Hill each had 10.
Madison Stewart”s 14 points led Cloverdale, which will play Ferndale for third place today at 1:30 p.m.
St. Helena 46, Kelseyville 20
After playing Lower Lake tough in their Stokes opener on Thursday, the Kelseyville Knights barely showed up in a consolation-semifinal loss to the St. Helena Saints.
“They were just off, weren”t playing their game,” Kelseyville coach Christina Taylor said of the Knights. “St. Helena is quick, they stole the ball and had a lot of layups.”
The Saints, defending NCL I South champions, had a 15-3 lead after one quarter and were up 28-11 by halftime.
Holle Depina led the Saints with 11 points. Jeannie Johnson”s nine points paced Kelseyville, now 0-2 in the Stokes standings and 1-2 overall. Mary Brown hit two 3-pointers and finished with six points.
The Knights play Fort Bragg in the seventh-place game today at 10:30 a.m.
Orland 55, Fort Bragg 19
Fort Bragg actually led 7-5 after the first quarter before Orland began to warm up from the field. The Trojans buried five 3-pointers during a 19-point second period, three of them by Lissette Gomes, and went on to rout the Timberwolves in the consolation semifinals.
Destiny Thompson had the other two 3-pointers in the second quarter and went on to lead the Trojans with 20 points. Gomes finished with 17 and Laeyla Ealy added 13. Orland ended up with nine 3-pointers overall.
Madi Mitchell and Kelly Mehtlan had five points apiece for Fort Bragg.
