POTTER VALLEY >> The Upper Lake Cougars stood up to the heat, both on the hardwood and from the stands, on Saturday while turning back the Mendocino Cardinals 53-49 in the championship game of the Potter Valley Tournament.
Upper Lake improved to 7-0 with its second tournament championship in a row, and in a small way the Cougars have a foul-mouthed Mendoino fan to thank for it, according to Upper Lake coach Justin Dutcher.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Dutcher said of the rude behavior of one male Mendocino fan who spent nearly the entire game screaming insults at Upper Lake’s players.
“He wasn’t rooting for the Mendocino players, he was demeaning us the whole time,” Dutcher said.
After getting off to a rough start, the Cougars bounced back form a 14-5 deficit after one quarter to close the gap to 29-26 by halftime. Upper Lake still trailed 40-38 entering the fourth quarter, but the Cougars pushed ahead early in the period. With nearly half the quarter gone, the disruptive fan was finally asked to leave the gym by game officials. He refused. A tournament official and another coach made the same request of the fan and he again refused, at which point the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Department was called in.
The defiant fan finally moved to the gym lobby after talking things over with a Mendocino player, but not until both teams had been idle on the court for 15 minutes as game officials refused to let play continue until he left the stands.
“Mendocino was shooting the ball real well up to that point and they cooled off after that,” Dutcher said. “We dominated the last five minutes.”
Upper Lake ended up outscoring Mendocino 15-9 in the fourth quarter.
Cougars center Colton Goetjen took on Mendocino’s big front line and more than held his own, according to Dutcher. He finished with 12 points and eight rebounds and was later named tournament most valuable player.
“He had one heck of a tournament,” Dutcher said.
Hank Nevarez and Dylan Armstrong finished with nine points apiece, Ray Moran added eight and Kenny Hodges had seven.
The Cougars finished the game with six 3-pointers, all but one of which came during their 21-point second quarter.
When Upper Lake was exiting the gym following the game, the unruly Mendocino fan was still in the lobby.
“We saw a sheriff’s car outside but we didn’t see them (deputies),” Dutcher said. “I don’t know what happened. He was just crazy, way out of control. I guess the officials finally had enough of it. My kids did great ignoring him. It wasn’t easy.”
In a 61-56 semifinal-round victory over Point Arena on Friday night, Goetjen again led the way with 17 points and 21 rebounds. Hodges added 17 points and 12 rebounds.
In other boys tournament action Saturday:
K’ville 44, Maria Carrillo 41
At Santa Rosa, playing their third straight Division II opponent, the Kelseyville Knights outscored Maria Carrillo 17-4 in the fourth quarter to secure the third-place trophy in the Rose City Tournament at Maria Carrillo High School.
“To tell you the truth I thought we were done,” Kelseyville coach Scott Conrad of the Knights, who were staring a 16-point deficit square in the face with two minutes remaining in the third quarter.
Conrad subbed in five reserves at that point.
“They cut it to 10 by the end of the third quarter and I left them in there to start the fourth quarter and we cut it to eight,” Conrad said of his second-string unit.
“Kyle Ashworth played some of the best defefnse I’ve ever seen him play and Vermontay Luia came up with a bunch of big plays, taking a charge, scoring a layup and getting a big rebound for us, right in a row and at a crucial time in the game for us.”
Kelseyville didn’t take its first lead of the game until Adrian Villalobos scored on a layup with 38 seconds remaining, part of a 7-0 run that was all Villalobos.
Kelseyville (3-1) lost to Cardinal Newman in the opening round before coming back with back-to-back wins over Santa Rosa High School and Maria Carrillo.
“I’m thrilled with how the kids competed, they really responded well,” Conrad said. “And we’re still not playing very well on offense, but we still scrapped out two wins down here.”
Trey Conrad, who was named to the All-Tournament team, led the Knights with 11 points while Villalobos ended up with nine and Ashworth with seven.
In their 48-36 victory over Santa Rosa on Friday, the Knights were led by Conrad’s 18 points and another 10 from Randy Pfann.
JV boys basketball
Clear Lake 91, Rio Vista 32
At Woodland, Darius Ford nearly outscored the entire Rio Vista team by himself, pouring in 31 points as the Clear Lake Cardinals rolled to an easy victory in the championship game of the Woodland JV Tournament.
Ford scored 82 points during the three-game tournament and was the easy choice for most valuable player honors. Joey Mendonca added 15 points and joined Ford on the All-Tournament team.
Clear Lake (6-0) led 59-23 at halftime.
The Cardinals are home Wednesday to play Maria Carrillo at 6 p.m. and they play in the Colfax Tournament on Dec. 28-30.
“We’re looking forward to that tournament,” Clear Lake coach Phil Psalmonds said.
South Fork 60, K’ville 54
At Willits, South Fork defeated Kelseyville in the championship game of the Willits JV Tournament despite 11 points from Tyler Linnell and 10 from Chase Larsen. Linnell,
Kelseyville’s Linnell, Larsen and Rafael Perez were named to the All-Tournament team.
Earlier Saturday the JV Knights beat St. Helena 44-24 in the semifinals behind 11 points from Perez and five from Linnell. They opened the tournament Friday with a 61-44 victory over Round Valley as Linnell led the way with 16 points and Perez added 12.
