SANTA ROSA >> Much like the San Francisco 49ers this season, the Lower Lake Trojans are quickly making up for a poor start and beginning to figure things out.
The Trojans (4-7) won their third straight on Monday night, beating the Sonoma Academy Coyotes 55-37 in a non-league varsity boys basketball game in Santa Rosa.
“Our defense has been pretty good most of the season and we continued with the good defense tonight,” Lower Lake coach Tim Biasotti said. “Offensively we’re coming together finally. It used to be Hoke (Wickard) and one or two guys carrying the load. Now others are chipping in.”
While Wickard scored 17 points to power the Trojans on Monday, Mike Taliaferro came through with a season-best 14, Izzac Carver and Elijah Hernandez added seven apiece, and Taylor Scott had six.
“Taliaferro has been real aggressive the last three or four games and is playing great basketball,” Biasotti said.
Sonoma Academy opened the game in a man-to-man defense before switching to a zone. Lower Lake had success against both, according to Biasotti.
Lower Lake led 27-20 at halftime and lengthened its lead to 43-30 after three quarters.
The Trojans hit the road Friday when they close out their preseason schedule with a non-league game against the same Piedmont team that won the Stokes Tournament on Saturday. One of the Highlanders’ three tournament wins at Kelseyville was a 54-34 victory over Lower Lake in the opening round.
“We feel like we can go down there and compete with them,” Biasotti said.
