ROHNERT PARK >> Upper Lake won’t have to worry about setting Lake County history. The Cougars, who opened their season with 18 straight losses, are no longer winless after knocking off Technology 58-44 in North Central League II varsity boys’ basketball action on Tuesday night in Rohnert Park.
No other county varsity team has gone deeper into a season without registering a win since the Record-Bee began keeping official stats in the early 1980s. There also have been no winless varsity teams during that time.
“We’re a happy group tonight,” Upper Lake coach Justin Dutcher said. “It’s been a long, hard road, but we did it, we finally did it.”
Pancho Flores led the Cougars (1-8, 1-18) with 15 points, Jon Sparks added 14 and Sal Sanchez 11. Upper Lake got a big lift on defense from junior varsity call-up Tim Betha, who helped guard Technology’s top scorer, Himansu Singh.
“He (Betha) helped keep him under control,” Dutcher said. “He (Singh) had nine points in the first quarter, but otherwise we did a pretty good job against him.”
Singh finished with a team-leading 21 points.
Down 13-11 after one quarter, Upper Lake had a 29-24 lead by halftime and took a 43-32 advantage into the final perid.
