KELSEYVILLE — Minus their top player, the Kelseyville Knights pushed the Cloverdale Eagles into overtime before falling 64-56 in a North Central League I varsity girls basketball thriller on Friday night in Kelseyville.
Four-year starter Payton Conrad, Kelseyville’s talented senior point guard, missed the game with a knee injury sustained during the Knights’ 45-40 league-opening win over Clear Lake on Wednesday and there is no word on when she might return, according to Kelseyville head coach Jim Hale.
“We’ll wait and see,” Hale said of Conrad, who watched the game from the Kelseyville bench.
With Conrad unable to go, other Knights stepped up to fill the void, including Ryann Taylor (18 points and eight rebounds), Kaleigh Davis (11 points and eight rebounds) and Paloma Ortiz (eight points), who sent the game into overtime by hitting the first of two free throws with seconds remaining in regulation.
The mood of the team was one of confidence even without their floor leader, according to Hale.
“They executed the gameplan, but we need to clean up a couple of our rotations defensively and we’ll be just fine,” he said. “Overall I was pretty pleased with how they played. We went from ‘let’s go an compete’ to ‘we let one get away.’ ”
Kelseyville jumped out to a 15-2 lead late in the first quarter before Cloverdale (2-0 league, 10-4 overall) began to chip away. The Eagles closed the gap to 26-23 by halftime but didn’t take their first lead until the final seconds of regulation when they scored a basket to move ahead 50-49. Ortiz drew a two-shot foul soon after. She hit the first free throw with some drama involved but missed a second shot that would have given the Knights the lead.
“Her first shot sat on the rim forever and looked like it was going to come out but it turned over at the last second and went back in,” Hale said.
In the overtime period, Cloverdale got the early jump and pressed its advantage home.
“They upped the pressure in the overtime and asserted themselves a little more,” Hale said.
Tehya Bird’s 25 points paced the Eagles.
Kelseyville (1-1, 8-5) will build off the loss, according to Hale, who said his mostly young team is still learning and getting better.
“They’ll just get better from this loss,” Hale said.
In the junior varsity game, Kelseyville fell to Cloverdale 49-29 minus the services of its top player, MJ Boardman, who was promoted to the varsity squad. Megan Holland’s 12 points paced the Knights, who dropped to 0-2 in the league standings. Kasandra Villalobos added seven points and both Skye Mateer and Emily Sandoval added four points.
Kelseyville’s teams are back in action Tuesday at home against Middletown.
In other girls action Friday:
Middletown 56, St. Helena 10
At St. Helena, the Middletown Mustangs shook off any lingering effects from a 55-35 road loss Wednesday at Cloverdale with an ultra-easy victory over the St. Helena Saints.
How easy? Middletown led 17-0 after one quarter and never looked back while improving to 1-1 in league play and 6-7 overall. The team has won five of its last seven.
St. Helena (0-1, 4-8) finally scored in the second quarter but Middletown put up another 17 points to open up a 34-3 halftime lead. The game finished with a running clock.
No other game details were reported.
In the JV game, Middletown cruised to a 48-8 victory behind a balanced scoring attack that featured 10 points from Brie Alves, seven from Bella Dubois and six apiece from Allison Brown, Jordan Sullivan, Brooklyn Huffman and Georgia Guerrero.
“It was a pretty easy win for us,” Middletown coach Andy Brown said.
Middletown led 31-0 at halftime.
The Mustangs, now 2-0 in league play, travel to Kelseyville on Tuesday.
Clear Lake 45, Fort Bragg 32
At Fort Bragg, opposing defenses are advised not to lose track of Clear Lake senior guard Kortnie Reynolds, who is heating up from the perimeter.
Reynolds scored a team-high 20 points, 18 of them on 3-pointers, to spoil Fort Bragg’s league opener. Clear Lake (1-1, 4-9) trailed 11-4 after one quarter and by as many as 10 points early in the second quarter before the Cardinals – and especially Reynolds – began finding the range from the field.
“It’s nice to see her shooting well again,” said her dad and Clear Lake head coach Kory Reynolds. “We weren’t running anything special to get her open, they just kind of lost track of her.”
Reynolds scored nine points, all on 3-pointers, in the second quarter as the Cardinals rallied to tie the game at 22-all by halftime. She hit two more treys in the third quarter when Clear Lake pushed ahead 36-26.
The Cardinals’ defense limited the Timberwolves to 10 second-half points.
“We played much better in the second half,” Reynolds said.
Joy Ingalls added 10 points in the victory and Daijanae Landers had eight.
Clear Lake also won the JV game. The score and other game details were not reported.
The Cardinals are home Tuesday to play Lower Lake.
