POTTER VALLEY >> The Upper Lake Cougars couldn’t escape a 22-4 first-quarter hole and fell to the St. Bernard Crusaders 78-47 in the winner’s semifinal round of the Potter Valley Tournament on Friday at Potter Valley High School.
The loss snapped a three-game winning streak for the Cougars (3-3), who were able to score with the Crusaders for the most part after the opening period.
“We started to relax and score (in the second quarter),” Upper Lake coach Mike Smith said of the Cougars’ 20-point second period.
Natalie Karlsson led the way for Upper Lake with 18 points, Brenna Sanchez added 10 and Kejhana Taylor had eight.
Upper Lake lost Taylor, Sanchez and Dakota Fugate to fouls before it was over.
“I’m seeing some positive things against a really good team that we can build on,” Smith said.
Upper Lake plays Anderson Valley tonight at 6 p.m. as the tournament wraps up.
In other girls tournament action Friday:
Woodside Priory 59, Kelseyville 33
At Pebble Beach, Woodside Priory of Portola Valley, a NorCal Division V quarterfinalist a year ago, used a 24-7 fourth quarter to beat the Kelseyville Knights in the second round of the Stevenson Tournament.
“They are extremely big and extremely fast,” Kelseyville coach Jim Hale said of the Panthers.
Kelseyville lost start Carli Menonca to a back injury but her replacement off the bench, Bib Hamner, turned in a strong effort, according to Hale.
“Hamner played great,” Hale said. “She had to battle a 6-4 girl and held her own.”
Hamner also scored eight points as Kelseyville (5-1) lost for the first time this season.
Alma Perez led the Knights with 10 points and Payton Conrad had eight.
Clear Lake 27, Healdsburg 24
At Healdsburg, it wasn’t a thing of beauty but it was a win as the Clear Lake Cardinals defeated host Healdsburg in the consolation semifinal round of the Redwood Empire Invitational.
Kortnie Reynolds scored nine of her team-leading 15 points in the fourth quarter, including two of her three 3-pointers on the night, to put Clear Lake (3-3) in front to stay.
“She got us the lead and we were able to hold on,” Clear Lake coach Kory Reynolds said.
Healdsburg took a 17-16 lead into the final period.
“It was a really hard game to watch at times,” Reynolds said of the considerable struggles of both teams on offense. “We had a lot of people open and missed a lot of wide open shots.”
Kiana Richardson had six points for the Cardinals.
Clear Lake plays Maria Carrillo today at noon in the consolation championship game.
Benicia 37, Lower Lake 31
At St. Helena, the Lower Lake Trojans scored 18 points in the second and just 13 points in the other three quarters combined while falling to Benicia in the winner’s semifinal round of the Sutter Home Invitational at St. Helena High School.
“We were getting a lot of shots, just not making them,” Lower Lake coach Dave Milano said.
The Trojans (2-3) led 20-11 at the half and 28-21 through three quarters, but were outscored 16-3 in the final period by Benicia.
Aleia Milano’s 11 points led the Trojans, who face either St. Helena or San Rafael tonight at 5:30 p.m. in the third-place game.
Acalanes 60, M’town 39
At Antioch, Middletown lost to Alcalanes for the second time this season and once again it was a 21-point difference, this time in the consolation round of the Antioch Tournament. Alcalanes also beat Middletown 60-39 on Dec. 2 at Lafayette.
The Mustangs dropped to 0-3 on the season.
Boys basketball
Kelseyille 61, Woodside Priory 51
At Pebble Beach, the Kelseyville Knights were able to overcome Woodside Priory’s height advantage and beat the Panthers in the second round of the Stevenson Tournament.
If the Knights (5-1) beat tournament host Stevenson High School today at 2:30 p.m., they’ll win the tournament title in the round-robin competition.
“They were bigger than us, but we outrebounded them,” Kelseyville coach Scott Conrad said.
Logan Barrick and Kyle Ellis each pulled down 10 rebounds. In fact, Barrick, a two-way starter for the Knights in football, took an elbow to the cheek battling inside.
“He may need stitches,” Conrad said. “He also twisted his ankle on Thursday (in a loss to Langston Hughes Academy). “He might have been safer playing football.”
While Ellis led the team with 25 points, Barrick might have played the best all-around game, according to Conrad.
“He just really anchored us,” Conrad said. “He was a warrior.”
Barrick also finished with nine points and three assists. Randy Pfann had nine points for the Knights while Trey Conrad had eight.
Kelseyville took a 41-38 lead into the fourth quarter but the Panthers
Cloverdale 58, Clear Lake 37
At Cloverdale, 19 turnovers ended whatever chance the Clear Lake Cardinals had of beating the Cloverdale Eagles on their own court in the winner’s semifinal round of the John McMillan Holiday Invitational.
“I thought we did some good things defensively and we rebounded well, but 19 turnovers is too many,” Clear Lake coach Scott De Leon said.
Clear Lake (3-2) also had a miserable night shooting the ball, according to De Leon.
“We shot horrible,” he said. “We had a lot of good looks but were absolutely terrible.”
Lucas Stahr’s seven points led the Cardinals. Max De Leon and T.J. Marcks each had six.
Clear Lake plays St. Helena tonight at 5 p.m. for third place.
Mendocino 65, Upper Lake 55
At Potter Valley, one time might be an aberration, but two games in a row points to a trend, one that Upper Lake head coach Justin Dutcher wants nothing to do with after watching his Cougars fall to the Mendocino Cardinals in the consolation semifinals of the Potter Valley Tournament.
Upper Lake (1-5) struggled mightily at the free-throw line for a second straight game, hitting just 12 of 33 shots, including only six of 19 in the second half.
“I don’t know what is going on at the free-throw line,” Dutcher said. “If I was coaching against us, I would put us on the line.”
Upper Lake succeeded in attacking the basketball against Mendocino and was rewarded with multiple trips to the free-throw line, but couldn’t take advantage.
While the Cougars were struggling up close, the Cardinals were pulling up and connecting from behind the 3-point arc – 11 times in all.
“We tried zone, man-to-man defense, everything we could think of to stop them,” Dutcher said. “Nothing worked.”
Kenneth Hodges and Derek Pritchard scored 14 points apiece to lead the Cougars. Pancho Flores added another 11 and Isaiah Garcia had 10.
Upper Lake plays Potter Valley today at 10:30 a.m. in the seventh-place game.
Corning 71, Lower Lake 56
At Live Oak, undefeated Corning (7-0) beat Lower Lake in the championship game of the Live Oak Tournament, breaking open a close game with a 25-13 third quarter.
“Sometimes you’ve just got to tip your cap to a better team,” Lower Lake coach Shannon Tubbs said. “They’ve got a solid program over there.”
Lower Lake (3-3) trailed 31-27 at halftime. Corning had an eight-point lead midway through the third quarter when the Trojans missed a pair of “chips shots,” according to Tubbs. “It went from eight points to 14 real quick and we couldn’t catch them.”
Corning converted 22 of 29 free throws to prevent any type of Lower Lake comeback.
Balanced scoring was the order of the day for the Trojans, who nearly had five players in double digits. Logan Carlson led the way with 13 points, Hokulani Wickard and Jordan McGrath each had 12, Ethan Watson finished with 10 points and Jerome Watson had nine.
Middletown 60, Willits 18
At Healdsburg, Middletown led 31-7 after at halftime while cruising to a victory over the Willits Wolverines in the consolation semifinals of the Redwood Empire Invitational. The Mustangs (3-2) lost to tournament host Healdsburg 60-22 in opening-round action Thursday.
Against Willits, Beckett Hoage led a balanced Middletown attack with 12 points while Trevor LaFave and Isaiah Moore added nine points apiece. Thomas Cook had eight.
In the loss to Healdsburg, LaFave led the Mustangs with five points.
Middletown plays St. Bernard’s of Eureka today at 4:30 p.m. in the consolation championship game.
JV girls basketball
Kelseyville 53, Cloverdale 38
At Lakeport, Allison Bryant poured in 26 points and Grace Duty added 12 in the opening round of the Clear Lake Tournament. Cassidy Griffen added six points in the win.
Kelseyville plays two more games today, the first at 11:30 a.m. against either Clear Lake or Lower Lake.
JV boys basketball
Upper Lake 55, St. Helena 46
At Willits, Dylan Armstrong scored 19 points and Chris Fecht contributed 18 to Upper Lake’s first-round win over St. Helena in the Willits Tournament.
Upper Lake plays two games today, the first against Clear Lake at noon.
Kelseyville 55, South Fork 29
At Willits, Vermontay Luia’s 14 points helped the Kelseyville Knights beat South Fork in the first round of the Willits Tournament. The Knights jumped out to a 29-8 lead after one quarter and never looked back.
Rafael Perez had eight points for the Knights while Robert Chavez added seven.
Kelseyville plays either Fort Bragg or Willits today at 1:30 p.m. Win or lose, the Knights will play again later in the day against an opponent to be determined.
