UPPER LAKE — It might not have felt like an easy game to Upper Lake High School varsity boys basketball head coach Justin Dutcher, but the Cougars didn’t have much trouble beating the Willits Wolverines, 75-28, in the opening round of the Cougar Round Robin on Thursday night in Upper Lake.
“It was kind of a weird game,” Dutcher said. “It didn’t have that feeling that we were playing very well but every time I looked up at the scoreboard, our lead was bigger. It didn’t feel as clean as the score looked.”
Upper Lake, now 4-0 on the season, outscored Willits in every quarter, including 22-2 in the final period. Kenny Hodges’ triple double, his second of the season, powered the Cougars. The senior finished with team highs in points (22), rebounds (11) and steals (10). He is just 48 points shy of reaching 1,000 for his career.
Point guard Ray Moran also turned in a solid effort with five points, seven rebounds and seven assists. Luis Avalos added 10 points while Dylan Armstrong and Hank Nevarez each had nine.
The Cougars play Potter Valley on Friday at 8 p.m. as the tournament continues.
In other boys basketball action Thursday:
Middletown 42, Williams 39
At Arbuckle, even without a full compliment of players, the Middletown Mustangs beat Williams in the winner’s semifinal round to reach the championship game of the Pierce Invitational for a second year in a row.
The Mustangs (2-0) will play either Pierce or Dixon in the finals Friday night at 8 p.m. Middletown lost to Dixon in last year’s championship game.
“They gutted it out and did enough to get the win,” Middletown head coach G.J. Rockwell said of his squad, which is minus several players who are still participating in the football playoffs. “We hit some big shots when we needed to.”
The Cervantes brothers – Sammy and Andreas – led the way with 14 and 12 points, respectively. Jimmy Rockwell added nine points, all on 3-pointers.
The game was close throughout. Middletown led 16-14 after one quarter, 25-24 at halftime and 33-31 entering the fourth quarter.
“It was a one-point game for about a five-minute stretch in the third quarter,” Rockwell said.
Middletown jumped ahead by five points with 1:30 remaining in the game and Williams was never closer than three the rest of the way.
“There was good defense all the way around by both teams,” Rockwell said. “They were big and sat in a zone. We really couldn’t get our offensive rhythm going. It was a little sloppy on offense for both teams.”
In the junior varsity division, Oroville defeated Middletown 64-55 in a winner’s bracket semifinal contest. Middletown (1-1) will meet Williams in the third-place game on Friday at 12:30 p.m.
“We were outsized and outnumbered,” said Middletown coach Jon Hoogendoorn, who doesn’t have his full compliment of players at present.
That lack of depth hurt the Mustangs against Oroville because three of Middletown’s starters eventually fouled out.
“We didn’t box out well and the 3-ball hurt us,” Hoogendoorn said. “We’ve got to be able to take away one of those things.”
Roberto Chaires led Middletown with 14 points, Luke Hoogendoorn added 13 and Cole Ketchum had eight.
“We did a lot of really good things,” Hoogendoorn said.
McKinleyville 84, Lower Lake 51
At McKinleyville, the Lower Lake Trojans walked into a hornet’s nest for their first game of the season, falling to the McKinleyville Panthers before a packed house in the opening round of the McKinleyville Tournament.
The Trojans (0-1) play either Arcata or Casa Grande on Friday at 4 p.m. in the consolation semifinals.
McKinleyville’s full-court pressing defense created a lot of turnovers and easy points for the Panthers as the hometown crowd roared with approval, according to Lower Lake head coach Tim Biasotti.
“We were tested by the crowd also,” Biasotti said. “That’s a big eye-opener, especially for guys up from the JVs playing in their first varsity game.”
The Panthers led 22-14 after one quarter and then put some real distance between themselves and the Trojans with a 24-9 second quarter.
“They had a lot of momentum early and it carried them the whole game,” Biasotti said. “Even if they hadn’t had a great shooting night they would have been tough to beat.”
There were some positives for the Trojans.
“They never quit, they hung in there,” Biasotti said. “I think we have an athletic team and that’s nice. We’ve still got things we need to work on.”
Darian James led Lower Lake with 12 points, Mike Taliaferro added 11 more, Donald Vaughn had eight points and Van Wilkins had seven.
