UPPER LAKE — Upper Lake High School senior Kenny Hodges is the most valuable player on the 2019 All-North Central League II boys basketball team as recently selected by the league’s coaches.
Hodges capped a brilliant three-year varsity career for the Cougars with his best season yet as he averaged a team-best 25.5 points and 8.8 rebounds a game. He scored 638 points during the 2018-19 campaign, one of only a handful of Lake County athletes ever to score 600 or more points in one season, and his 1,499 career points place him sixth on the county’s list of career scoring leaders.
Upper Lake finished 7-2 and in second place in the final NCL II standings behind Roseland University Prep. The Cougars were 18-9 overall, including a loss to University High School of San Francisco in the opening round of the North Coast Section Division V playoffs.
In the 25 games he appeared for the Cougars this season, Hodges never scored fewer than 16 points. He scored 20 or more points 23 times.
Hodges was one of four Upper Lake players to receive All-League honors. Named to the first team was guard and 3-point specialist Dylan Armstrong, a senior, while senior point guard Ray Moran earned All-League second-team honors. Benat Love, a junior, received an honorable mention.
Other first-team selections were Liam Wickenburg and Nick DiSanto of Rincon Valley Christian, and Charlie Perez and Miguel Figueroa of Roseland University Prep.
Along with losing the likes of Hodges, Armstrong and Moran to graduation, the Cougars will return next season with a new coach as five-year veteran Justin Dutcher stepped down at the conclusion of the season.
