LINCOLN >> Alisha Jones scored her only three points of the game at the perfect time. Her 3-pointer with 10 seconds remaining lifted the Lower Lake High School varsity girls basketball team to a 38-35 victory over El Camino in the opening round of the Lincoln Invitational on Friday night in Lincoln.
Second-round games in the 10-team tournament are Saturday and final-round games are Monday at Lincoln High School.
“Yeah, huge,” Lower Lake head coach Shannon Tubbs said of the game-winning shot by Jones. “She needed it. She had a rough game offensively … they had two big girls in the middle … but she didn’t hesitate when she had the opportunity and shot it with the confidence we talk about.”
The two teams entered the fourth quarter tied at 25. El Camino led by as many as six points midway through the final period before Lower Lake began to close the gap.
“The defense is still solid but we had some rust to knock off offensively,” Tubbs said of the nearly two-week-long layoff for the Trojans (3-6) between games.
Kayla Doud’s 11 points led Lower Lake, Sam Hughes added nine and Shelby Sapeta had eight.
Lower Lake plays Yuba City on Saturday at 8:30 a.m.
On Monday, the Trojans play Del Campo to close out the tournament. Lower Lake’s final tuneup before the start of league play next Friday is a Thursday home game against Colusa.
“I’m glad we are playing this weekend and then against two times next week,” Tubbs said with an eye toward the Trojans’ league opener at home against Fort Bragg.
