LAKEPORT >> Kory Reynolds would have settled for a first-round home game in the Northern California Division V girls basketball playoffs going into Sunday’s seeding meeting for the 16-team tournament, which is part of the state playoffs.
Clear Lake’s varsity girls basketball coach ended up with considerably more than that after the field was announced late Sunday afternoon. The Cardinals (23-5), co-North Central League I champions this season and North Coast Section semifinalists, pulled down the No. 2 seed and will host No. 15 Golden Sierra (Garden Valley) in an opening-round game Wednesday at 7 p.m.
“Very surprised,” Reynolds said. “I really did not expect that at all. Using last year as a guide, I figured No. 6 or so. I couldn’t have picked a better spot myself if they let me.”
The Cardinals reached the NorCals a year ago with a 20-10 record but received just the No. 10 seed. They exited with a first-round 63-42 loss to Capital Christian, a team they could end up facing in the quarterfinals this year.
Two factors benefited Clear Lake’s much higher seeding this year. For starters, the Cardinals had better credentials coming in — including a co-league championship and a 23-5 record. Also, under a new formula designed to fill the divisional playoff brackets with competitive balance, some teams were moved up a division or more while others were placed in a lower division. In Division V, the two North Coast Section finalists, champion Urban and runner-up St. Bernard’s, ended up being moved into higher divisions — Urban into Division III and St. Bernard into Division IV.
Urban defeated Clear Lake 52-49 in the sectional semifinal round last week in San Francisco.
In fact, the only team seeded higher than Clear Lake in the NorCal field is another North Coast Section team, University High School of San Francisco. University lost 33-31 to St. Bernard’s in the semifinals last week.
“It’s very exciting for the kids,” Reynolds said of the prospect of playing for a Northern California championship, something no Lake County basketball team has ever won, and possibly appearing in a state championship game the weekend of March 23-24 in Sacramento.
Sierra Pacific High School (Hanford) is the No. 1 seed in the Southern California Division V playoffs, which are held simultaneously with the NorCal playoffs.
Best yet for the Cardinals, the No. 2 seed means they will host games for as long as they can win in the NorCals. In fact, if they advance to the NorCal finals and No. 1 seed University is knocked off somewhere along the way, they would host that final.
After that, a road trip to the state championship game at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, home of the NBA’s Kings, would seem like a hop, skip and a jump from Lakeport.
Reynolds said the loss to Urban left a bad taste in his team’s mouth and the Cardinals now have a chance to end the season on their terms.
“It’s pretty exciting to get the No. 2 seed,” Reynolds said. “All we have to do now is go out and play basketball. There’s not a lot of time to do a lot of scouting, so we just play. We didn’t play our best basketball in our last game. We’re capable of playing so much better.”
NORCAL NOTES: There was some talk that Cloverdale, the team that tied Clear Lake for the NCL I championship this season, would not apply for an at-large berth in the NorCals but the Eagles (20-7) were seeded No. 12 in the field and are on the road Wednesday to play No. 5 seed Lassen (21-8) … the other top seeds in the field are No. 3 Argonaut (21-8) of Jackson, No. 4 Lowell (16-11) of San Francisco, No. 5 Lassen, No. 6 Durham (24-5), No. 7 Capital Christian (15-11) and No. 8 Mariposa County (23-7) … Clear Lake’s starting five of seniors Valerie Hutton, Kiana Richardson, Camille Donald and Corin Alakszay and junior Kortnie Reynolds all landed somewhere on the All-North Central League I team as selected by the league’s coaches. Hutton was the co-MVP along with Cloverdale’s Camryn Figueroa … the 1988-89 Cardinals coached by the late Ron Jackson lost to Menlo 63-46 in the NorCal finals at the old Arco Arena in Sacramento. That team finished 29-2 … Upper Lake’s girls lost in the NorCal finals in 1991 and again in 1993.
