FORT BRAGG — Andrew Jackson hit three of four free throws in the final minute and the Clear Lake Cardinals held off the Fort Bragg Timberwolves 67-62 in North Central League I varsity boys” basketball action Friday night at Fort Bragg.
“Sloppy, sloppy win,” Clear Lake coach Glenn Wienke said. “We played pretty good defense, but the offense was out of sync.”
Adrian Perez led the Cardinals (5-3 league, 12-7 overall) with 18 points and Kyle Donald added 16 as Fort Bragg fell to 2-6 in the league standings.
Clear Lake led by just three points with a minute remaining but Jackson”s accuracy from the free-throw line helped seal the win, according to Wienke.
“I don”t know if its that ride over there or what, but we were just out of sync. But anytime I leave Fort Bragg with a win, it”s a good feeling,” Wienke said.
Wienke credited Joey Blair with a solid game off the Clear Lake bench.
In other boys” action Friday:
Middletown 56, Lower Lake 36
At Middletown, Blaine Amos scored a season-high 18 points and he also led Middletown with 15 rebounds as the Mustangs knocked off the Lower Lake Trojans in NCL I action.
Amos scored 11 points over the final two quarters when the Mustangs broke the game open. Lower Lake trailed 27-20 at the half.
“Any given night someone in this league can beat you,” Middletown coach G.J. Rockwell said. “It”s a crazy race. You can”t even think about who you are playing two games down the road.”
It was the second solid effort in a row for Amos, who had 16 points in a win over Cloverdale on Tuesday.
“He was very aggressive, especially in the third and fourth quarters,” Rockwell said. “But he was pretty steady all night long.”
While the Mustangs struggled on offense outside of Amos ? their next highest scorer was Luke Humphrey with nine points — the Middletown defense logged another strong outing.
“We had too many turnovers, but we did play good defense,” Rockwell said. “The kids hustled and worked hard.”
Jesse Meldrum”s 11 points paced the Trojans, now 0-8 in the league standings and 0-18 overall.
Tyler Rockwell had eight points for the Mustangs, who improved to 6-2 in the NCL I standings and 13-6 overall.
Tomales 34, Upper Lake 32
At Tomales, Upper Lake had two possessions to tie the score in the final 35 seconds but failed to get off a shot either time in its NCL II loss to the Tomales Braves.
The two teams spent the majority of the game separated by no more than four points, according to Upper Lake coach Mike Smith.
Kelsey Pearl scored with 35 seconds remaining to make it 34-32. Forced to foul, the Cougars sent the Braves to the free-throw line on two separate occasions but the Braves couldn”t convert.
Tomales” defense double-teamed Kat Edmonds when she wasn”t in foul trouble.
“There was a big stretch where I had my younger girls in there and they did a good job keeping the game close,” Smith said of such players as sophomore Monicka Diaz and junior Ashley Lovrin. “They played great and it was nice to see.”
Edmonds finished with a double-double, scoring 10 points and pulling down 12 rebounds. Pearl added nine points.
