CRESCENT CITY >> If you’re going to spend five hours on the road (one way) and travel 270 miles to play a basketball game, why not win?
The Kelseyville Knights did on Wednesday, beating the Del Norte Warriors 50-45 in the opening round of the North Coast Section Division IV playoffs in Crescent City. Kelseyville (23-5) draws No. 1 seed Salesian (23-5) in the quarterfinls on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. at Salesian High School in Richmond.
It’s the first Division IV victory for the Kelseyville girls, who received a big 22-point performance from Alma Perez on a night when junior guard Riley Goff missed her third straight game with an ankle injury.
“She took a giant step for us tonight,” Kelseyville coach Jim Hale said of Perez, who found the range on five 3-pointers. “She filled a void for us. At one point she asked me if she was shooting the ball too much. I told her to take the shot if she was open or I would pull her out of the game.”
Kelseyville led 18-10 after one quarter, 26-18 at halftime and 39-30 through three quarters. Del Norte cut the deficit to one with a minute to go, but that’s when freshman guard Payton Conrad buried one of her three 3-pointers. It was a three-point Kelseyville lead with 30 seconds left when post Carli Mendonca found the team’s other post, Heidy Cano, with a nice pass inside. Cano hit the short jumper to push the Knights’ advantage to five.
Lake County basketball teams, both boys and girls, had gone since 2005 without a playoff victory and since 2003 without a postseason win in Division IV. On Wednesday night, both Kelseyville and Middletown, the North Central League I co-champions this season, finished off their opponents within minutes of each other to snap those respective streaks once and for all.
There is a chance Kelseyville could have Goff back in time for Salesian, according to Hale.
“She’s still a little bit hobbled, but she might play,” Hale said.
Conrad finished with nine points while Taylor Hale added six. Cano and Perez were the team’s leading rebounders with nine and seven, respectively.
In other girls’ playoff action Wednesday:
University 49, Upper Lake 22
At San Francisco, it was devilishly good performance by the University High School girls’ basketball team against the Upper Lake Cougars in the opening round of the Division V playoffs.
The Red Devils (21-6) knocked off the Upper Lake Cougars and will advance to the quarterfinal round on Saturday. Upper Lake, which had its fair share of struggles on the road this season, Wednesday’s game being only the latest example, closes out a third straight winning season at 14-13 and has the bulk of its roster returning next season. “They accomplished things I wasn’t really expecting until next season,” Upper Lake coach Mike Smith said of his young squad. “It’s a good group of girls and I’m very proud of them.”
University, the No. 4 seed in the Division V field, led only 12-8 after one quarter but took control during a 16-1 second period.
“I felt pretty good about the first quarter, but the whistles went quiet for both teams in that second quarter and we were looking for fouls instead of looking for good shots. We got frustrated and that was the game,” Smith said.
Guard Natalie Karlsson closed out a strong junior season with 14 points. She averaged a Lake County-leading 20.4 this season and finished the 2015-16 campaign with a county-best 550 points, pushing her over 1,100 (1,109) for her career.
Brenna Sanchez and Kejhana Taylor each added four points in the loss.
St. Mary’s 60, Clear Lake 33
At Oakland, St. Mary’s speed was the difference as the Panthers from Albany made the most of numerous Clear Lake turnovers to beat the Cardinals in the opening round of the Division IV playoffs.
“They are pretty quick,” Clear Lake coach Kory Reynolds said of the Panthers (17-12). “I told them (Clear Lake players) no long passes or crosscourt passes because they would just get picked off and they did.”
Up 17-9 after one quarter, St. Mary’s began to pull away early in the second period and the Panthers held a 36-15 advantage by halftime.
“We came out in the second half and played pretty good defense and got the offense going, but we couldn’t make up any ground,” Reynolds said.
Playing her final game for the Cardinals, senior Taylor Helms led the way with 18 points to finish her career with 1,088. She hit four of the Cardinals’ five 3-pointers against St. Mary’s while Valerie Hutton (seven points) had the other.
Freshman Kortnie Reynolds, daughter of the coach, scored her first two varsity points by hitting a 15-foot jumper in the final two minutes of the game. Reynolds and Grace Davidson were called up from the junior varsity team prior to the playoffs and both saw action late in the game.
Clear Lake finishes the season at 15-11.
“It was a good season,” Reynolds said. “Our goal was to reach the playoffs and we did that.”
Boys
Stuart Hall 93, Upper Lake 48
At San Francisco, the Upper Lake Cougars hung around for most of the first before the Stuart Hall Knights pulled away for an easy victory in the opening round of the Division V playoffs.
Stuart Hall (18-10) advances to the quarterfinals on Saturday while Upper Lake closes out its season at 15-11.
“We gave it everything we had, we just got beat by a better team and there’s nothing you can do about that,” Upper Lake coach Justin Dutcher said. “Those guys came to play tonight, I’ll give them that,” he added of his players.
Stuart Hall, the No. 4 seed in the 16-team Division V field, led 20-14 after one quarter. The Knights began to pull away midway through the second period, using their pressure defense to great effect, according to Dutcher.
“We played really well for the first quarter and a half, but they press you like crazy,” Dutcher said. “We had a lot of turnovers at the end of the second quarter and they hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer right before half that kind of deflated us.”
Stuart Hall expanded its 48-29 halftime lead with a 33-12 third quarter.
“They really ramped up their pressure and we kind of unraveled,” Dutcher said.
Isaac Nevarez led the Cougars with 18 points in his final high school game and junior Derek Pritchard added 11, including three 3-pointers.
“I’m proud of the season we had and I can’t wait to get it started for next year,” Dutcher said.
Arcata 56, Kelseyville 52
At Arcata, the Kelseyville Knights were as close as three points with two minutes remaining but couldn’t overtake the Arcata Tigers in the opening round of the Division IV playoffs.
“We played really well,” Kelseyville coach Scott Conrad. “Some of my guys played the best games of their careers. As a coach, that was rewarding to see.”
A packed gym greeted the Knights (19-9).
“They are a senior heavy team and it was a great crowd, a tough environment to play in,” Conrad said.
Arcata led 11-10 after one quarter, 28-19 at halftime and 43-36 at the end of three quarters.
Kyle Ellis led the Knights with 18 points, Ean Valenzuela added 14 and Nick Pfann had nine.
“Nick Pfann did a fantastic job of running the offense and (Hunter) Beatty and Ellis had great games,” Conrad said. “Ean made play after play after play for us to get us going.”
Beatty finished with six points.
Arcata moves on to the quarterfinals on Saturday.
“It’s hurts to lose but it was a great effort by our guys,” Conrad said.
