LAKE COUNTY >> The Middletown Mustangs and Kelseyville Knights have battled a whole season to get here. The Upper Lake Cougars have waited a whole season to get here.
Three Lake County varsity girls’ basketball teams and two games — one in the North Central League I and another in the North Central League II — are in tonight’s spotlight, both with immense title implications.
In the NCL I, Middletown (8-1) hosts Kelseyville (7-2) in a rematch of a Jan. 13 game at Kelseyville won by the Knights 49-42. In the NCL II, Sonoma Academy (9-0) goes for a season sweep of Upper Lake when it visits the Cougars (8-1), who dropped a 66-54 decision to the Coyotes on Jan. 13 in Santa Rosa.
There is precious little room for error, especially for Kelseyville and Upper Lake given their current status of being one game behind the leaders of their respective leagues. That’s because time is critical. After tonight’s round of games there are only two weeks remaining in the regular season, which means only four more games.
Middletown, led by head coach Anthony Bazzano, clearly expected to be in the race for a championship this season after finishing second to runner-up Cloverdale a year ago. The Mustangs, 15-6 overall, returned a solid nucleus of veterans, led by the likes of Ashlyn Welton and Nicole Corsetti, but also received a big infusion of talent from an undefeated junior varsity squad led by Abby Aden and Mackenzi Smith.
Likewise the Upper Lake Cougars, who at 16-12 a year ago had one of their best seasons in years, returned all their top players, including Jojo Augustine, LaShaye Taylor, Autum Martinez, Skylar Orozco and Natalie Karlsson, who is just a sophomore. The team set a handful of goals for 2014-15, including 20 or more wins — they’re currently 18-3 — and a league title.
The surprise newcomer is Kelseyville under the leadership of first-year coach Jim Hale. The Knights, 13-7 overall, are about as young as it gets with the likes of sophomores Riley Goff, Alma Perez, Carli Mendonca, Haleigh Meyer, Taylor Hale and Lauren Rudnick all pulling down minutes, and certainly in the case of Goff and Perez, major minutes this season. The team has only four upperclassmen — one junior and three seniors.
Kelseyville finished just 4-10 in league play a year ago, which tied the Knights with Clear Lake for sixth place in the league standings. They haven’t been a major player in the NCL I since Jim Salmina stepped down as coach seven years ago. That stretch of futility appears to be a thing of the past.
If the Knights beat Middletown for a sweep of the season series, the remaining schedule certainly favors them over the Mustangs. Kelseyville’s final four games are against Clear Lake (Tuesday in Kelseyville), Lower Lake (Feb. 13 in Lower Lake), Willits (Feb. 17 in Willits) and St. Helena (Feb. 19 in Kelseyville). Middletown’s schedule after tonight includes Cloverdale (Tuesday at home), Clear Lake (Feb. 12 in Lakeport), Lower Lake (Feb. 17 in Lower Lake), and Willits (Feb. 19 in Willits).
While the NCL I race has featured a handful of surprises and several competitive games (outside of winless St. Helena), not so in the NCL II where Sonoma Academy and Upper Lake have taken turns drilling their other league opponents with regularity. That puts the pressure squarely on the Cougars tonight to get a win and pull even with the Coyotes, who aren’t likely to lose in their final four games.
Upper Lake sat starting point guard Karlsson, its leading scorer on the season, during a win over Technology on Tuesday even though she had been medically cleared to play after spraining her elbow in a league win over Tomales. That was a precaution to make sure the sophomore is at full strength — or close to it — for tonight’s game against Sonoma Academy.
If Lake County teams win the NCL I and NCL II this season, it will mark the first time that has happened (Upper Lake’s great championship teams in the early 1990s played in the NCL I).
