SANTA ROSA >> Playing on the road hasn’t exactly been the Upper Lake Cougars’ forte this season and a 53-45 loss to the Roseland Prep Knights on Tuesday night was just another example.
Hoping to beat the Knights on their homecourt for the first time during his coaching career at Upper Lake, Mike Smith will have to wait at least one more year.
Upper Lake (8-5 league, 13-12 overall) was halfway to that win with a 29-24 halftime lead, but a third quarter during which the Knights outscored the Cougars 23-8 proved to be too much to overcome.
“We did not rebound defensively in the third quarter and we did not get out on their shooters,” Smith said of Roseland Prep’s Emmely Magana and Dariana Herrera, who scored the bulk of the Knights’ points in that quarter, including three 3-pointers. “They took control of the game.”
The first half was a different story as Upper Lake outscored Roseland Prep in each of the first two quarters.
“The first half we broke their zone and were getting easy layups inside,” Smith said. “We got out of that rhythm in the second half. We tried to get back to it, but it didn’t happen.”
The Cougars’ goal of reaching 15 wins in the regular season won’t be met but the team still has one more game remaining, that Thursday in Rohnert Park against Technology. Will 14 victories be enough to reach the North Coast Section Division V playoffs as an at-large team should his squad beat Tech?
Perhaps, but Smith hasn’t decided if he’ll apply for that at-large berth.
“I have to think about that,” he said. “You don’t want to play a road playoff game when you haven’t proved you can win on the road. We’ve won two league road games against Calistoga and Tomales, teams that haven’t beaten anybody. Part of the playoffs is youhave to be able to win road league games.”
Brenna Sanchez led Upper Lake with 14 points against Roseland Prep. Natalie Karlsson added nine points and Kayla Nevarez had eight.
Roseland Prep won the junior varsity game 32-26.
