UPPER LAKE >> The averages favor Upper Lake High School junior guard Natalie Karlsson reaching the 1,000-point scoring milestone tonight when the Cougars, who are battling Sonoma Academy for the North Central League II championship again this season, host the Tomales Braves.
Junior varsity girls’ action tips off at 4 p.m. with the varsity girls’ and boys’ games to follow.
Karlsson, Lake County’s top scorer this season at 22.4 points a game, needs only 15 to reach the coveted 1,000 mark. When these two schools last met on Jan. 6 in Tomales, the league opener for both teams, Karlsson finished with 38 points in a 65-17 Upper Lake victory.
Karlsson isn’t the only Lake County player who could hit 1,000 tonight. Kelseyville’s Riley Goff, also a junior, needs 27 points in Kelseyville’s away game against Fort Bragg as the NCL I leaders (7-0) open the second half of their league schedule on the Mendocino County coast. Goff’s single-game high this season is 26 points although she’s scored as many as 34 in a game during her Kelseyville career.
If Goff doesn’t reach 1,000 tonight, she could do it on Tuesday night when the Knights return home to face Cloverdale.
Regardless of when they score their 1,000th point, Karlsson and Goff are soon to become the 40th and 41st county players to reach the milestone, and the second and third this season. Middletown’s Ashlyn Welton, a senior, became the 39th earlier this month and has moved up on the county’s all-time scoring leader’s list since then. She currently stands at 21st with 1,123. The Middletown record is 1,230 by Tyler Hunt.
Another senior, Clear Lake’s Taylor Helms, could join the 1,000-point club as early as next week. Helms is 48 points shy. Based on her season average of 16.0, she would hit 1,000 on Feb. 4 in St. Helena. The Cardinals aren’t home again until Feb. 6 against Fort Bragg.
A fifth county player, junior Kyle Ellis of Kelseyville, is 123 points away from 1,000.
The all-time scoring records for the five county schools are 1,897 at Upper Lake (Laura Wilder), 1,717 at Kelseyville (Scott Conrad), 1,672 at Lower Lake (Vince Alderman), 1,485 at Clear Lake (Jenny Schaal) and 1,230 at Middletown (Hunt).
