ESPARTO — On a night when the Upper Lake Cougars were tested down low by a physical Esparto team, Kaila Willard and Katlyn Minnis were more than up to the task in a 31-26 non-league varsity girls basketball victory over the Trojans at Esparto.
“They crashed the boards hard and made us work for it,” Upper Lake coach Nick Williamson said of the Trojans.
Willard pulled down a team-best 16 rebounds to go along with seven points as Upper Lake squared its season record at 3-3. Five of those points came at the free-throw line where the junior hit some clutch shots, according to Williamson.
Minnis grabbed 13 rebounds and had four points.
In a game where the two teams were never separated by much, Upper Lake led 13-10 at halftime and 22-19 going into the fourth quarter.
Alana Sanchez paced the Cougars with 12 points and Vanessa Loans Arrow had eight.
In Saturday’s 34-21 championship game loss to the Ferndale Wildcats at the Cougar Round Robin in Upper Lake, All-Tournament selection Karlee Zimmerschied, a freshman guard, led the Cougars with six points and Sanchez had four.
Upper Lake opens play Thursday in the Potter Valley Tournament.
