UKIAH >> The North Central League I postseason basketball tournament tips off Friday at 3:30 p.m. at Mendocino College in Ukiah where the top four finishers in the league standings, boys and girls, square off in the two-day, single-elimination competition.
First-round winners advance to Saturday’s championship round.
What’s at stake? Not a bunch, especially for the boys, but there is a bit of intrigue in regard to the girls’ bracket where NCL I co-champions Middletown (13-1) and Kelseyville (13-1) will be playing for the right to host a first-round North Coast Section Division IV playoff game early next week. The team that does the best during the tournament will be the league’s automatic playoff representative while the other can still apply for an at-large berth.
Cloverdale is the undisputed boys’ champion for the second year in a row and the No. 1 seed in the league tournament. The Eagles (12-2) draw the Kelseyville Knights (9-5), the fourth seed, at 8 p.m. on Friday. The other boys’ game matches No. 2 seed Lower Lake (10-2) against No. 3 seed Fort Bragg (9-5) at 5 p.m. Kelseyville and Cloverdale split their two league meetings as did Lower Lake and Fort Bragg.
First-round winners meet in the championship game Saturday at 4 p.m.
In the girls’ bracket, Middletown is the No. 1 seed and draws No. 4 Clear Lake (8-6) at 6:30 p.m. on Friday. Middletown beat Clear Lake in both league meetings this season. The other first-round game has No. 2 seed Kelseyville playing No. 3 Cloverdale (10-4) at 3:30 p.m. Kelseyville went 2-1 against Cloverdale during the regular season, winning both league meetings after losing to the Eagles in early December at the Stokes Tournament in Kelseyville.
First-round winners square off Saturday in the finals at 5:30 p.m.
One interesting twist to the tournament is that four of the five Lake County players who scored their 1,000th career point during the current season will be in action – Kyle Ellis and Riley Goff of Kelseyville, Taylor Helms of Clear Lake and Ashlyn Welton of Middletown.
Among the county’s boys’ teams, both Kelseyville at 19-7 overall and Lower Lake at 14-11 figure to apply for sectional at-large playoff berths in Division IV following the tournament. Another win or two can only help their chances. Despite having a worse overall record than Kelseyville, Lower Lake finished higher in the league standings and has won two of three meetings from the Knights this season, both of those in league play.
Clear Lake’s boys, who finished fifth in the NCL I standings, are also going to apply for an at-large berth in Division IV.
Cloverdale is the only Division V team in the NCL I postseason tournament.
The section will release its playoff brackets on Sunday.
