KELSEYVILLE — It took a quarter for Upper Lake to find its groove against Ferndale in the first round of the 48th annual Stokes Invitational Basketball Tournament on Thursday afternoon at Kelseyville, but once the Cougars did, it was game over.
Behind 15 points from freshman post Madison Noble, 13 from Alana Sanchez and 12 more from Karlee Zimmerschied, the Cougars rolled to a 53-14 victory. Upper Lake held a 13-7 advantage during a competitive first quarter, but it was all Upper Lake after that as the Cougars’ defense put the clamps on the Wildcats, limiting them to one point in the second quarter and one point in the fourth quarter. Put another way, Upper Lake outscored Ferndale 40-7 after the opening period.
“Once we got the ball up and down and the break working, we were in good shape,” Upper Lake head coach Mike Smith said of the one-sided nature of the game after the first quarter. “If we play like that we’re going to be just fine.”
Upper Lake’s full-court pressure helped set up a lot of those fastbreak opportunities, according to Smith.
“And I think we can be a little more intense than we were today,” he said with an eye toward the remainder of the tournament, which runs through Saturday. “We definitely pressed a little more this game.”
Upper Lake had five freshmen on the court during a portion of the second quarter – starters Noble, Heaven’Lee Loans Arrow and Maddy Young, and reserves Lupy Monlo-Duncan and Kat Geary-Lopez, both on loan from the Cougars’ junior varsity club.
“Noble came into her own at the Potter Valley Tournament (last weekend) and she’s cutting well and getting the outside boards,” Smith said. “She also made some nice passes to Karlee on the fastbreak.”
Smith said he was pleased with the overall team effort.
“We got the fastbreak going, we boxed out, we played with intensity, everything I was looking for,” he added.
Molly McCabe, a junior, added seven points. Sanchez pulled down a team-best 10 rebounds. Loans Arrow also blocked five shots while Young had five steals.
The Cougars (8-2) draw Elsie Allen of Santa on Friday in a second-round game that tips off at 4:30 p.m. Elsie Allen took a 12-0 record into its Stokes opener Thursday night against Kelseyville (the game finished after the Record-Bee’s print deadline).
In other early Stokes action Thursday:
Boys basketball
Cloverdale 70, Upper Lake 31
At Kelseyville, Cloverdale took control with a 15-5 first quarter and went on to handily beat the Upper Lake Cougars in opening-round boys action at the Stokes Tournament.
Even down by 10 points after one quarter, Upper Lake head coach Tony Arroyo said he felt confident the Cougars (8-2) could stay close enough to make a game of it. That feeling stopped when Cloverdale guard Adrian Gutierrez got hot. Gutierrez scored 11 of his team-leading 20 points in the second quarter, including four 3-pointers, to power the Eagles (6-2) to a 37-15 halftime lead.
“He was their spark,” Arroyo said of the senior Gutierrez. “That’s when my guys’ heads went down. In the first three minutes (of the quarter) I could tell they were done.”
Upper Lake switched from a zone to a man-to-man defense with the hopes of forcing the Eagles into some turnovers, but it didn’t happen.
“I wanted to take advantage of our quickness, but they were just as quick,” Arroyo said of the Eagles, who are a contender to win the North Central League I this season.
Junior center Josh Lemley added 17 points in Cloverdale’s win.
“He’s a next-level player who plays hard and has a soft touch,” Arroyo said.
Upper Lake’s Dalton Slater drew the difficult assignment of trying to slow down Lemley and did a commendable job, according to Arroyo, who said Slater and reserve Rocco Bassignani were the two Cougars players who never backed down against the Eagles, something he would like to see a little more of from his other players.
Slater and Benat Love led the Cougars in scoring with seven points apiece and Bassignani had six.
Arroyo said Upper Lake needs to do a better job of finding its own spark plug when it falls behind early in a game and needs to maintain focus when things aren’t going its way.
“When their heads are down, we do a lot of one-on-one stuff instead of playing like a team, and that hasn’t worked out well for us,” Arroyo said.
Upper Lake’s goal on Friday against Elsie Allen in the consolation semifinals (noon tip-off) is to bounce back and play a full four quarters, according to Arroyo.
“Tomorrow is key for us,” Arroyo said. “We need to regain some momentum.”
