LAKEPORT >> Mobeen Hirbod rained all over the parade that was Clear Lake’s first home postseason game in more than a decade, scoring 32 points to lead No. 10 seed Bentley School of Lafayette to a 67-57 upset of the seventh-seeded Cardinals on Wednesday night in the opening round of the North Coast Section Division V boys basketball playoffs.
“He was practically unstoppable,” Clear Lake coach Scott De Leon said. “He shot lights out … you could probably count his misses on one hand.”
Hirbod, a senior guard, scored 17 points in the first half and another 15 in the second half. He finished with four 3-pointers.
Bentley (13-15) advances to the quarterfinals on Saturday night against No. 2 seed Branson (26-3) while Clear Lake finishes the 2017-18 season at 16-11.
The Phoenix opened up a 20-9 lead after one quarter although Clear Lake closed the deficit to 37-33 by halftime with a 24-point second period.
“We had 11 turnovers in the first quarter,” De Leon said. “Their press did a nice job.”
Clear Lake did a much better job protecting the ball the rest of the way, but a couple key turnovers in the second half were momentum killers, according to De Leon.
“The story of our season was too many turnovers at inopportune times,” he said.
Clear Lake fell behind by as many as 14 points but battled back to stay within reach of Bentley.
“We kept grinding and I’m proud of how hard the kids played,” De Leon said. “They worked their butts off. They could have given up but they didn’t.”
Preston Jones (15 points), Jake Elsa (12 points), Tanner Hutton (10 points) and Austin Davis (8 points) led the Cardinals. It was the final high school game for seniors Elsa, Hutton and Davis. Hutton closes out his three-year varsity career with 1,151 points.
“It’s been a good season, it’s just disappointing to end it with a loss,” De Leon said.
Clear Lake tied Cloverdale for third place in the North Central League I standings this season before advancing to the playoffs as an at-large team.
In other first-round playoff games Wednesday:
Stuart Hall 54, Middletown 46
At San Francisco, in a Division IV first-round game that was played within a range of four to six points most of the way, the Middletown Mustangs threw a pretty big scare Stuart Hall’s way before bowing out of the postseason.
“I think they were kind of surprised by us,” Middletown coach G.J. Rockwell. “They beat Fort Bragg real bad (85-33) during the season and they probably didn’t expect much from us because we play in the same league.”
Stuart Hall (19-10), the No. 3 seed in the Division IV field, advances to the quarterfinals on Saturday against St. Mary’s of Albany. Middletown, the NCL I runner-up this season, closes out the 2017-18 campaign at 18-8.
Middletown took a four-point lead in the second quarter before Stuart Hall rallied to go up 30-27 by halftime. It was still close after a low-scoring third period, one during which the Knights outscored the Mustangs 9-4.
“That third quarter kind of bit us,” Rockwell said. “They pressured us a little bit and we made some mistakes. We scored only four points but they had only nine.”
Middletown could never make it a one-possession game in the fourth quarter although the Mustangs certainly hung around thanks to sophomore Andres Cervantes, who went off for 11 of his team-leading 20 points in the final period.
“They (Knights) are very athletic, very long and aggressive, lots of man-to-man pressure,” Rockwell said. “But our boys handled it pretty well. I’m really proud of the way my guys played … no backing down.”
Middletown loses four of its starters to graduation — Thomas Cook, Luke Holt, Jeffrey Morris and Trey O’Neill.
“They set the bar pretty high for this program,” Rockwell said. “I’m going to miss all four of them.”
Cook closed scored nine points in his final high school game while Holt added seven and Morris six.
Branson 91, Upper Lake 60
At Kentfield, the Branson Bulls of Ross had too much firepower although the Upper Lake Cougars fought back with everything they had in a Division V first-round game.
“They’re just solid everything,” Upper Lake coach Justin Dutcher said of the No. 2-seeded Bulls (26-3), who scored 20-plus points in each of the first three quarters. “Their bigs are excellent, their guards are excellent, the guys they bring off the bench are excellent.”
Branson 6-foot-5 junior forward Viktor Rajkovic was basically unstoppable down low, according to Dutcher.
“He has a one-handed floater from 8-10 feet that’s just deadly,” Dutcher said. “He was cleaning up the boards all night.”
Rajkovic finished with 24 points.
Upper Lake (18-9) trailed 22-10 after one quarter and 51-22 at halftime.
“We shot well enough to keep it respectable,” Dutcher said. “I thought we represented ourselves pretty well. We could have given up but we fought well and played hard.”
The Cougars sank nine 3-pointers to Branson’ 11. Kenny Hodges and Hank Nevarez led Upper Lake with 14 points apiece. Colton Goetjen added 10 more, Ray Moran finished with eight while Dylan Armstrong and JT Claunch each had six.
Dutcher said he was happy with what his team accomplished this season.
“I’ll take 18 wins any year,” he said.
