CONCORD >> Aleia Milano’s 34 points, including eight 3-pointers, lifted the Lower Lake Trojans to a 66-53 non-league varsity girls basketball victory over Rio Americano on Saturday at Mount Diablo High School in Concord.
Milano is averaging 27.2 points a game (12th in the nation) and 5.1 3-pointers a game (first in the nation), according to MaxPreps. The four-year varsity starter is ninth on the list of Lake County’s career scoring leaders with 1,425 points.
Lower Lake (8-2) jumped out to an early lead against Rio Americano, but the Trojans went almost seven minutes without scoring a point in the second quarter, allowing the Sacramento-based Raiders to push ahead 28-24 by halftime.
“Nothing would go,” Lower Lake coach Dave Milano said. “Aleia hit a 3-pointer and a couple of free throws near the end (of the half) to account for all of our points in the quarter.”
Lower Lake made a couple of halftime adjustments before taking control of the game with a 26-14 third quarter.
“The shots started dropping and we did a better job on defense,” Milano said. “They (Raiders) were a good team, trying to slow the game down and feed the post while we were trying to run in the open floor. We kind of dictated the pace.”
Samantha Caires added 15 points and Vanessa Hughes had 10 in the win.
Lower Lake closes out its preseason with a road game Wednesday in Oroville against Las Plumas and a home game Friday (varsity only) against Durham.
