LAKE COUNTY >> Clear Lake High School’s varsity girls basketball team pulled down the highest seed of the seven Lake County squads moving on to the North Coast Section playoffs in Division IV and Division V.
First-round games for all seven teams are Wednesday. Reaching the postseason as automatic qualifiers by virtue of winning their league are the Lady Cardinals (21-4), the No. 4 seed in the Division V playoffs, and the Kelseyville boys (22-4), the No. 8 seed in the Division IV playoffs. Securing at-large berths were the No. 14 Middletown boys (18-7) in Division IV, the No. 7 Clear Lake boys (16-10) and No. 15 Upper Lake boys (18-8) in Division V, and the No. 11 Kelseyville (20-6) and No. 13 Lower Lake (17-9) girls in Division IV.
Both the Division IV and V boys and girls tournaments are 16-team brackets.
Three county teams play at home Thursday while the other four hit the road. Clear Lake High School hosts a doubleheader beginning with the boys game between Clear Lake and No. 10 Bentley (12-15) at 5:30 p.m. followed by the girls game between Clear Lake and No. 13 Redwood Christian (12-11) at 7 p.m. Kelseyville’s boys also open at home and face No. 9 Fortuna (16-11) at 7 p.m.
The county’s road warriors are the Kelseyville girls, who play No. 6 Swett (21-6) at 7 p.m. at John Swett High School in Crockett; the Lower Lake girls, who play No. 4 Marin Catholic (22-6) at 7 p.m. in Kentfield, the second straight year the two schools have squared off in a first-round game. Also on the road Wednesday are the Middletown boys, who take on No. 3 Stuart Hall (18-10) at 5:30 p.m. at Kezar Gym in San Francisco, and the Upper Lake boys, who play No. 2 Branson (25-3) at 7 p.m. at Collge of Marin in Kentfield.
Boys and girls first-round winners in Division IV and Division V advance to the quarterfinals on Saturday night. The only county team guaranteed of hosting a quarterfinal-round game should it win on Wednesday is coach Kory Reynolds’ Clear Lake girls. They would host the winner of another first-round game between No. 5 Cloverdale and No. 12 Athenian.
Semifinal-round games in Division IV and Division V are a week from Wednesday. The championship round is March 3.
The top seeds in Division IV are the St. Joseph Notre Dame of Alameda boys and girls. The top seeds in Division V are University (boys) and Urban (girls).
The last time a Lake County team won a sectional championship was 1994 (Upper Lake girls). The last time a county boys team won was 1989 (Clear Lake).
