LIVE OAK >> The Clear Lake Cardinals made the most of their zone press defense, rolling out 45 first-half points in a 71-45 victory over the Lower Lake Trojans in the third-place game of the Ron Pritchard Invitational on Friday night in Live Oak.
“We knew it was coming,” Lower Lake coach Tim Biasotti said. “They got a ton of turnovers.”
“It was pretty effective,” Clear Lake coach Scott De Leon added.”We had 10 steals for the game, I don’t how many came in the first half.”
Clear Lake (3-3) led 20-13 after one quarter and 45-25 by halftime.
“They had a lot of second-chance opportunities,” Biasotti said of the Cardinals. “Our inside game was really solid,” De Leon added. “(Lucas) Stahr had eight of his 11 points in the second quarter. We also rebounded really well. Stahr had eight defensive rebounds and three offensive rebounds as well as three blocks.”
Stahr was later named to the All-Tournament team along with point guard Brady McGuire, who had eight points as part of a balanced Clear Lake attack that featured 11 apiece from Stahr, Tanner Hutton and Preston Jones as well as another seven from Austin Davis.
“He (Stahr) just dominated the inside the whole tournament,” De Leon said. “Brady was all over the floor all three games. He played his absolute heart out. He never stops.”
Clear Lake opened the tournament with a loss to Colfax before bouncing back with lopsided wins over Hamilton and Lower Lake. Lower Lake (1-6) beat Hamilton in its opener before losing a close one to Orville and falling to Clear Lake in the third-place game.
“I thought Lower Lake did some real nice things,” De Leon said. “They forced us to have to work hard.”
Hokulani Wickard’s 14 points paced the Trojans while Izzac Carver and Michael Taliaferro each had 11.
In other boys basketball action Friday:
M’town 54, El Molino 40
At Healdsburg, Middletown gradually pulled away from El Molino en route to a victory in the consolation semifinals of the Redwood Empire Invitational. The Mustangs will play either Roseland Prep or host Healdsburg in the consolation finals on Saturday at 4 p.m.
Middletown (3-2) jumped out to a 6-0 lead and had a double-digit advantage late in the first quarter before junior guard Noah Brown went down with a knee injury, the severity of which hadn’t been determined as of Friday night. Stunned a bit by the loss of their teammate, the Mustangs watched El Molino close the gap to 16-14 by the end of the period.
Middletown led 26-20 at halftime and was up 39-31 going into the final period.
“We got the football guys into the mix,” Middletown coach Jon Hoogendoorn said of such players as Trey O’Neill and Luke Holt, who got a late start this season because of the Mustangs’ deep run into the sectional football playoffs.
“Our offensive continuity is not completely there yet,” Hoogendoorn said. “Our defense gave us the edge.”
Thomas Cook and Andres Cervantes shared scoring honors with 14 points apiece. Brown had nine before leaving the game late in the first quarter and O’Neill finished with eight.
“Hopefully he’s not hurt too bad,” Hoogendoorn said of Brown.
Upper Lake 61, Point Arena 56
At Potter Valley, DylanArmstrong scored all eight of his points, including two 3-pointers, in the fourth quarter as the Upper Lake Cougars remained undefeated on the season with a down-to-the-wire victory over Point Arena in the winner’s semifinals of the Potter Valley Tournament.
Upper Lake (6-0), Lake County’s only remaining undefeated varsity basketball team, will play Mendocino for the Potter Valley title on Saturday at 4:30 p.m.
While Armstrong carried the scoring load for the Cougars down the stretch, Upper Lake head coach Justin Dutcher said the story of the game was center Colton Goetjen, who scored 17 points and pulled down 21 rebounds.
“He absolutely destroyed them inside,” Dutcher said of Goetjen’s play in the paint against the Pirates. “He was a man among boys. Colton really put on a show.”
Kenny Hodges also had a double-double for Upper Lake with 17 points and 12 rebounds. Hank Nevarez added six points and seven assists and while Ray Moran had four points and eight assists.
“Ray’s passing and defense were excellent,” Dutcher said of Moran.
Upper Lake led 37-29 at halftime but Point Arena cut that lead to 48-45 after three quarters.
“It was tight the whole way,” Dutcher said.
K’ville 48, Santa Rosa 36
At Santa Rosa, Trey Conrad, Randy Pfann and Scott Sanchez, the senior triumvirate of the Kelseyville Knights, came through in a big way in a 48-36 victory over Santa Rosa High School in the consolation semifinals of the Rose City Tournament at Maria Carrillo High School.
Kelseyville plays Maria Carrillo, its third straight North Bay League opponent in a row, Saturday at 3:30 p.m. in the consolation championship game.
“We played great defense all night,” Kelseyville coach Scott Conrad said of the Knights (2-1), who limited the Panthers to single-digit point totals in each of the first three quarters. “They didn’t get an uncontested look at the basket until the fourth quarter.”
Kelseyville carried a 33-18 lead into the final period.
“We’re playing defense at a really high level right now,” Conrad said. “Offensively we’re still a little out of sync.”
Trey Conrad led the Knights with 18 points, Randy Pfann added 10 more, Jon Vanderwall had eight and Scott Sanchez finished with six.
“Trey did a really nice job controlling the tempo of the game,” Conrad said. “He controlled the tempo for us when we needed it.”
Kelseyville’s point guard also had four assists.
Pfann made his presence felt all over the court. Along with his 10 points, he logged seven rebounds, five assists and five steals.
“And Scott had a great game for us with his hustle,” Conrad said. “Those are our three senior leaders and we need that from them.”
JV basketball
Clear Lake 54, Colfax 43
At Woodland, rotating in fresh legs as often as they could, the Clear Lake Cardinals wore down Colfax and posted a come-from-behind victory in the winner’s semifinal round of the Woodland JV Tournament.
Clear Lake (5-0) plays Rio Vista in the championship game on Saturday at 2:30 p.m.
The Cardinals trailed 23-13 after one quarter but were within a point of the Falcons at 29-28 by halftime.
“We just kind of wore them down with our defense,” Clear Lake head coach Phil Psalmonds said.
All 12 Cardinals scored in the victory and Darius Ford once again led the way with 19 points. Jason Johnson added seven.
