COLFAX — They’ll meet twice more in North Central League I action when the stakes will be quite a bit higher, but round one of Clear Lake vs. Cloverdale went to the Cardinals on Saturday with a 62-56 victory in the third-place game of the Colfax Falcon Shootout at Colfax High School.
Clear Lake (10-2) outscored Cloverdale 14-7 in the fourth quarter to erase a 49-48 deficit entering the final period and it was All-Tournament selection Jaron Mertle who led the way as he scored 12 of his team-leading 21 points in the quarter.
“Jarod played really, really well and so did Darius (Ford),” Clear Lake head coach Scott De Leon said of his two All-Tournament players.
Ford added 15 points in the win as Clear Lake closed out its non-league schedule at 10-2. The Cardinals have 14 games remaining on their regular-season schedule, all of them league contests including Jan. 16 (away) and Feb. 5 (home) meetings against a Cloverdale squad that figures to be in the thick of the league race this season.
“It was heck of a basketball game,” De Leon said. “(Josh) Lemley is solid, a really good post player for them. Our strategy was to push the ball and to his credit he played the whole way. But I think we kind of wore him down a little bit because he didn’t score in the fourth quarter.”
Lemley, a 6-foot-5 sophomore center, scored all 17 of his points in the fourth quarter but couldn’t find the bucket down the stretch when the Cardinals made their move.
“We played solid defense against him the whole way,” De Leon said. “Tj (Marcks), Jaron and other guys were on him and we made him work hard. It worked out pretty well.”
Senior guard Mario Lopez led the Eagles (6-5) with 23 points and provided the Cardinals with a handful of problems, especially in the early going.
“He’s a great guard and we have to figure out what we’re going to do with him down the road,” De Leon said.
Mertle finished with another double-double, pulling down 11 rebounds of which seven were on the offensive boards.
Clear Lake won despite being outscored 14-7 at the free-throw line by the Eagles, who got to the line for 23 shots to only nine for the Cardinals.
Bench play and post defense also figured in Clear Lake’s win, according to De Leon, who said Travis Howe and Tyler Cerini spelled his starters with several quality minutes. Marcks’ play down low against Lemley was another key to the victory.
De Leon credited his team with coming back strong after a heartbreaking 66-65 overtime loss to El Dorado in the semifinals on Friday night.
“We were just a missed layup from being in the championship game,” De Leon said. “With third place on the line my guys really responded.”
Marcks led the Cardinals with 17 points in the loss to El Dorado while Ford and Mertle each had 16.
De Leon said Clear Lake’s successful preseason exceeded his expectations.
“If you would have told me we’d be sitting where we are right now (at 10-2), I would have taken it … I’m not sure I would have believed it,” De Leon said.
The Cardinals hit the road to open their league schedule Wednesday at Kelseyville.
In other tournament action Saturday:
Kelseyville 64, Trinity 57 (OT)
At Fort Bragg, a long and difficult preseason for the Kelseyville Knights closed on a high note against Trinity in the seventh-place game of the Fort Bragg Tournament.
Kelseyville (3-9) battled back from a double-digit deficit to force overtime, then outscored Trinity 9-2 in the extra period to pull out the victory. Tyler Linnell scored all of his team-leading 15 points after halftime, including five in the overtime, three of them at the free-throw line.
“He hit some clutch free throws for us,” Kelseyville head coach Gus Schillinger said. “Nik Helms hit a key 3-pointer in the overtime.”
With Trinity packed in a zone defense and daring Kelseyville to shoot the ball from the outside, Schillinger said the Knights did a much better job in the second half and overtime attacking inside.
Damian Ledesma also gave the Knights a big lift off the bench in the second half, his defense forcing some key turnovers that allowed Kelseyville to get back into the game.
“He’s incredibly fast, has good footwork,” Schillinger said. “Our full-court man press had an effect and we slowly started chipping away.”
Adrian Villalobos added 14 points in the win, Joey Mendonca had nine and Josh Hodson seven.
Kelseyville rebounded from a 69-36 loss to St. Helena in Friday’s consolation semifinals, a game during which the Knights trailed 36-14 by halftime.
St. Helena’s pressing defenses stymied Kelseyville’s offense and the Saints’ hot shooting did the rest. They made seven 3-pointers in each half.
Hodson’s eight points led the Knights while Linnell, Helms and Jonny Rixen each had five.
Kelseyville hosts red-hot Clear Lake (10-2) in the league opener for both teams on Wednesday.
JV basketball
At Colfax, Treppa Marcks earned most valuable player honors as the Clear Lake junior varsity boys completed a 3-0 tournament run with a 51-37 victory over host Colfax in the championship game of the Colfax Falcon Shootout.
Donovan Valadez and Keanu Ford also earned All-Tournament honors as the Cardinals nailed down their first Colfax Falcon Shootout title with a strong second half.
Foul trouble limited Clear Lake’s effectiveness on defense in the first half, according to head coach Phil Psalmonds.
“Once we got our starters back on the court in the second half and were able to play our style of basketball, we were just fine,” Psalmonds said. “The reserves did a nice job keeping us in the game until we got our guys back.”
Clear Lake’s suffocating defense turned out the lights on Colfax’s offense the final two quarters, according to Psalmonds.
“We turned up the pressure, created a bunch of turnovers and got some easy baskets,” he said.
Evan Coakley’s 19 points paced the Cardinals and gave him a team-best 56 for the tournament. Ford added 12 points, all on 3-pointers, while Marcks added eight.
“It was a well-deserved MVP award,” Psalmonds said of Marcks’ honor. “He was double digits in rebounds for us every game and he played great defense. He did a great job.”
Clear Lake overwhelmed El Dorado 63-42 in the semifinals on Friday behind 16 points apiece from Valadez and Coakley and another 12 from Marcks.
“We jumped them right off the bat,” Psalmonds said.
Clear Lake pushed a 35-25 lead to a 20-point advantage midway through the third quarter.
