COLUSA — Avenging a loss to Clear Lake in last year’s Colusa Tournament championship game, Wheatland High School jumped out to a big lead and cruised to a 52-35 victory over the Cardinals in this year’s finals on Saturday night in Colusa.
“I don’t mind the losing part, but it’s the way we lost,” Clear Lake varsity girls basketball coach Kory Reynolds said of a rough night for his his squad. “We didn’t play well. We didn’t shoot worth a darn.”
Clear Lake (2-1) made only 10 baskets, and no 3-pointers. It’s top player, Kortnie Reynolds, failed to crack the scoring column but did earn All-Tourney honors along with Lilli Hill.
“Fifteen of our points were at the free-throw line,” Reynolds said. “Our defense didn’t play as well as in our first two games and our offense was sluggish. This might be the worst game we play all year.”
Joy Ingalls led the Cardinals with 11 points and Daijanae Landers added six more.
Clear Lake returns to action Wednesday at 4 p.m. against Justin-Siena in the opening round of the Redwood Empire Invitational in Healdsburg.
In other girls tournament action Saturday:
Kelseyville 67, River City 49
At Gridley, Grace Davidson led the way with 23 points and Payton Conrad scored 19 to become Kelseyville’s all-time girls scoring leader as the Knights defeated River City in the consolation championship game of the Gridley Tournament.
Despite the final score, only five points separated the two teams with four minutes remaining in the game. Paloma Ortiz hit four clutch free throws down the stretch to give Kelseyville (2-1) some much-needed breathing room.
“Our two seniors (Davidson and Conrad) really stepped up and took control of the game in the second half,” Kelseyville coach Jim Hale said. “They slowed it down and sped it up when we needed it.”
Davidson, named to the All-Tournament team, scored nine of Kelseyville’s 16 points in the third quarter and Conrad had eight of her 19 in the fourth quarter. Conrad also led the the Knights with 11 assists.
“She was involved with a lot of our scoring,” Hale said of his senior point guard, who pushed her career scoring total to 1,208 points, passing Shalonda Bowden (1,201) for the school record.
“The whole team took a step up with their game through the weekend,” Hale said. “It was fun to watch. Now we’ve just got to keep playing at that level.”
Kelseyville is home against Durham on Tuesday in a non-league game. The Knights take on Healdsburg on Thursday at 8 p.m. in the opening round of the Redwood Empire Invitational at Healdsburg.
Lower Lake 39, Hoopa 36
At Arcata, after going 0-for-13 from the field in the third quarter, the Lower Lake Trojans rallied to beat Hoopa in the seventh-place game of the Arcata Tournament, their first win of the season.
Lower Lake (1-3) outscored Hoopa 22-11 in the fourth quarter to pull out the win. The Trojans pushed ahead to stay when Lynzi Milano made four straight free throws late in the fourth quarter to give Lower Lake a 35-33 lead.
“We were ahead 1-0 and we didn’t have another lead until the final two minutes,” Lower Lake coach Dave Milano said.
Marnae Johnson’s 14 points powered the Lower Lake comeback.
“We were outplaying them in a big way, but we just couldn’t make a shot,” Milano said. “And then the shots just started falling in the fourth quarter.”
Lower Lake returns to action Thursday against Arcata at 6 p.m. in the opening round of the Durham Tournament.
Ferndale 34, Upper Lake 21
At Upper Lake, the Ferndale Wildcats beat the Upper Lake Cougars in the championship game of the Cougar Round Robin.
Karlee Zimmerschied’s six points paced the Cougars (2-3). The freshman guard was later named to the All-tournament team. Alana Sanchez added four points.
Upper Lake (2-3) played a non-league game on Monday in Esparto. The Cougars open play in the Potter Valley Tournament on Thursday.
