LAKE COUNTY >> Six teams entered the opening round of the North Coast Section basketball playoffs on Wednesday night and four survived, making it perhaps the best first-round performance by county teams since the divisional format was adopted by the section.
County schools went 2-1 at home — the Kelseyville and Clear Lake girls winning and the Kelseyville boys losing — and 2-1 on the road — the Upper Lake girls and Clear Lake boys winning and the Lower Lake girls losing.
Broken down by division, the county’s Division IV schools — Kelseyville and Lower Lake — went 1-2 while the Division V teams — Clear Lake and Upper Lake — went 3-0. Division IV, often considered the toughest of the six divisions currently in place, has never seen a Lake County team advance beyond the semifinals. That’s not the case in Division V where the Upper Lake girls won three titles (1991, 1993, 1994), the Clear Lake girls one (1989), and the Clear Lake boys one (1989).
With three Division V teams still alive this year, the county’s long drought of no section winners might be put to the test. One thing for sure is that at least one team will reach the semifinals as Clear Lake (19-9) hosts Upper Lake (16-11) in a quarterfinal-round girls game Saturday at 7 p.m. Clear Lake’s boys (14-14) hit the road to play No. 4 seed Bentley (18-9) at 7 p.m. in Lafayette.
The other quarterfinal involving a Lake County team on Saturday has the Kelseyville girls (26-3) hitting the road to play No. 2 seed St. Joseph Notre Dame of Alameda at 6:30 p.m. If the Knights can upset the Pilots, they will be through to the semifinal round next Wednesday, a level no county Division IV girls team has ever reached.
While the Division IV opening-round games went pretty much to form in both the boys and girls brackets on Wednesday, such was not the case in Division V where one No. 1 seed lost — the Upper Lake Cougars stunned top-seeded Convent of the Sacred Heart 58-56 in San Francisco — and another had to rally to win — the No. 1 Cloverdale boys barely beat No. 16 St. Vincent 55-53.
In Division IV boys, the Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 8 seeds all came through with wins. Only No. 7 Arcata was an upset victim. In Division IV girls, the Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 teams pushed through to the quarterfinals, leaving only No. 6 Justin-Siena and No. 8 Piedmont as upset victms.
Compare that to Division V girls where the Nos. 1, 5 and 7 seeds all lost. On Upper Lake’s and Clear Lake’s half of the bracket, not only did Convent of the Sacred Heart go by the wayside, but No. 5 San Domenico was upset 47-45 by No. 12 Head-Royce. If Head-Royce goes on to beat No. 4 Urban in the quarterfinals on Saturday and Clear Lake also beats Upper Lake, Clear Lake would host Head-Royce in the semifinals next Wednesday.
In Division V boys first-round action, No. 1 Cloverdale barely survived No. 16 St. Vincent. No. 5 Berean Christian wasn’t nearly as lucky as Clear Lake won 63-55. No. 7 Sonoma Academy was another upset victim.
If the Clear Lake boys can score a second straight upset in the quarterfinals, they would draw the winner of Cloverdale-No. 8 Redwood Christian in the semifinals next week and be on the road for a third straight game.
The Clear Lake and Upper Lake girls will be meeting for the second time this season when they bump heads Saturday in the quarterfinals. Clear Lake beat Upper Lake 49-47 on Dec. 20 in Upper Lake and the Cougars will be looking for revenge on the Cardinals’ homecourt. A huge if not capacity crowd is expected in a rare meeting between county teams in the sectional playoffs. At stake is the aforementioned trip to the semifinals next week. Clear Lake also needs one more win to reach 20 for the season in what is already the Cardinals’ best campaign ever under head coach Kory Reynolds, who is in his seventh season.
“When I first started the other coaches in the county told me to be patient because it takes five or six years to establish a program,” Reynolds said.
Clear Lake did reach the Division IV playoffs a year ago during a 15-12 campaign, losing to St. Mary’s in the first round.
That eight of Reynolds’ 11 players are underclassmen bodes well for a team that just missed winning a share of the North Central League I championship this season — the Cardinals finished 11-3 behind co-champions Lower Lake and Kelseyville at 12-2.
Moving down into Division V this season was another bonus and couldn’t have come at a better time for a team that is loaded with junior talent.
Upper Lake is pretty much at the other end of the spectrum with seven of its 13 players being seniors, including the team’s scoring leader, Natalie Karlsson, a four-year varsity veteran. She enters play Saturday against Clear Lake with 1,795 points and could join another Upper Lake great, Laura Wilder, as the only two players in county history to score 1,800 points (Wilder finished with 1,897, tops in county history).
Upper Lake’s big win over a No. 1 seed in the opening round sent shock waves throughout the North Coast Section on Thursday and the Cougars were certainly celebrating the moment all while preparing for their next big challenge in Clear Lake.
“Yes the town was buzzing and that felt great,” Upper Lake coach Mike Smith said. “It was good to get back to practice (Thursday) and kick their butts. Clear Lake won’t take us lightly like Sacred Heart did.”
Smith said he had his players go up against the Upper Lake boys squad for part of Thursday’s practice to prepare them for Clear Lake.
“They definitely want to beat Clear Lake, especially with their former teammates in Clear Lake uniforms,” Smith said.
