LAKEPORT — A little home cooking never hurts and the Clear Lake Cardinals chowed down Tuesday night as they pummeled the Lower Lake Trojans 77-38 in North Central League I varsity boys basketball action at Lakeport.
Clear Lake (4-0 league, 13-3 overall) remains tied with Cloverdale (4-0) and Fort Bragg (4-0) for the lead league. The Cardinals host Fort Bragg on Friday.
“We just came out and put a ton of pressure on them early,” Clear Lake head coach Scott De Leon said as the Cardinals ran their league winning streak, which dates back through last year, to 18 games in a row. They’ve also won 23 of their last 24.
“Everyone got an opportunity to play,” De Leon said.
Clear Lake emptied its bench early and all 11 Cardinals reached the scoring column.
“Lower Lake is rebuilding and they’ve got a couple of good players,” De Leon said. “He (Lower Lake first-year coach Marcus Humphrey) just needs more to work with.”
Tyler Cerini led the Cardinals with 17 points, Jaron Mertle added 12 and Matthew Martin had 10, including one of Clear Lake’s four 3-pointers.
“Our gameplan was to try and lock up Darius (Ford),” Humphrey said of Clear Lake’s senior guard. “We did great with that part, but they have so many other tools they can utilize.”
One of those tools is big man Cerini.
“Cerini absolutely killed us in that first quarter,” Humphrey said.
Clear Lake led 26-9 after the opening period and 46-18 at halftime.
Vann Wilkins led the Trojans (0-4, 2-8) with 14 points, Gavin Watson added seven and Aries Brooke had six.
In junior varsity action, Clear Lake improved to 4-0 in league and 14-1 overall with a 78-53 victory over Lower Lake. The Cardinals landed five players in double figures led by Maddox Albaum’s 17 points. Ethan Maize added 15, Drake Smart finished with 12, Isaiah Alvarez had 11 and Zane Robinson 10.
Albaum came off the bench for Clear Lake.
“He dominated in the middle,” Clear Lake coach Scott Persons said. “They didn’t have an answer for him.”
Clear Lake led 36-24 at halftime and 54-30 through three quarters.
“We’ve got a lot of things to clean up, but overall it was a good game,” Persons said.
Anthony Hills led the Trojans with 27 points, including five 3-pointers, Jeff Guralos added 17 and Marquis Jones had 10.
In other boys games Tuesday:
Fort Bragg 57, Middletown 44
At Middletown, without Sammy Cervantes in the starting lineup, the Middletown Mustangs struggled early and ended up falling to the Fort Bragg Timberwolves (4-0), who kept pace with Clear Lake and Cloverdale, both 4-0, atop the NCL I standings. Middletown is now 2-2 in league and 9-6 overall.
Cervantes received two technical fouls and was ejected in Middletown’s 46-41 home loss to Clear Lake on Friday. As a result, he had to sit out Tuesday’s game against Fort Bragg.
“It changed everything,” Middletown head coach G.J. Rockwell said. “We weren’t in sync on offense.”
Fort Bragg’s defense did all it could do to take Andres Cervantes, Sammy’s brother, out of the game, according to Rockwell.
“Fort Bragg had a good gameplan and their defense collapsed on Andres anytime he touched the ball,” Rockwell said.
There were a couple of bright spots for the Mustangs, according to Rockwell, who said the team still has 10 league games remaining to turn it around, beginning with a road trip Friday to Cloverdale.
“Justin Hollingsworth came off the bench and gave us good energy and Jorge (Fonseca) came off the bench and played well,” Rockwell said. “That’s something to build on.”
Jimmy Rockwell’s 12 points led the Mustangs while Fonseca added 10 and Will Chastain nine.
Fort Bragg senior guard Alex Whitehead scored all 16 of his points in the second half to keep the Timberwolves in front.
“There is still a long way to go and anything can happen,” Rockwell said.
In the JV game, the Middletown Mustangs, minus one of their top players, still had more than enough firepower to beat the Fort Bragg Timberwolves, 55-40. With Cole Ketchum up with the varsity team on Tuesday, the Mustangs were led by Lucas DaCosta with 15 points and point guard Luke Hoogendoorn with 12.
Middletown (3-1, 12-3) trailed 26-22 at halftime but pushed in front to stay early in the third quarter on the strength of 3-pointers by DaCosta and Hoogendoorn. DaCosta’s 11-point scoring spree in the quarter, including two 3-pointers, put the Mustangs ahead to stay.
Middletown’s defense shut down Fort Bragg in the second half and DaCosta played a part in that too as he drew the Timberwolves’ top scorer, Rhett Bennett (14 points), and limited him two points over the final two quarters.
“That’s what we’re capable of,” Middletown coach Jon Hoogendoorn said of the Mustangs’ airtight play on defense in the second half.
Roberto Chaires scored eight points for the Mustangs, Brody Breeden added seven and Zach Dubois had six.
Kelseyville 50, Willits 31
At Willits, after snapping a 44-game league winning streak on Friday with a 54-52 road victory against Lower Lake, the Willits Wolverines had ideas of extending that winning streak after taking a 20-19 lead into halftime against the visiting Kelseyville Knights.
Kelseyville (1-3, 6-9) had other ideas. Behind 14 points from Bodhi Baird and 11 from Joey Mendonca, the Knights provided first-year head coach Jeremy Linnell with his first NCL I victory.
“It feels really good,” Linnell said.
The Knights outscored The Wolverines (1-3) by a 31-11 margin in the second half to post what turned out to be an easy victory.
“We functioned well on offense in the second half and played really good defense,” Linnell said. “The rim kind of opened up for us.”
Rafael Perez contributed a season-best nine points in the victory.
“It was a good team win,” Linnell said.
The Knights host Lower Lake (0-4) on Friday night.
In JV action, Kelseyville beat Willits 51-35 to even its league record at 2-2. The Knights rode a balanced scoring attack to the win. Luke Watkins finished with nine points, Kyle Leary added eight while Derek Huggins, Manny Acosta, Tyler Leary and Joey Gentle all had six points.
Kelseyville used a 17-8 second quarter to take a 23-12 halftime lead.
St. Vincent 50, Upper Lake 44
At Petaluma, falling behind 18-8 after one quarter, the Upper Lake Cougars closed to one point in the second half but could never overtake the St. Vincent Mustangs in the NCL II opener for both teams.
“They were huge and our goal was keep them off the boards and we didn’t do that well enough,” Upper Lake head coach Tony Arroyo said of the Cougars’ slow start against the Mustangs. “And we weren’t patient early with our offense.”
The Cougars (0-1, 11-4) corrected both shortcomings the rest of the way but couldn’t quite dig themselves out of their early hole.
“We got as close as one point (in the third quarter),” Arroyo said. “Every time we made a run at them, they would hit a 3-pointer. We had our chances, forced some turnovers but weren’t able to take advantage.”
Jay Arroyo’s 13 points and three 3-pointers led the Cougars, and Benat Love added eight points.
St. Vincent made seven 3-pointers to Upper Lake’s five.
In the JV game, hurt by the loss of their leading scorer on the season, the Upper Lake Cougars played a strong first half before running out of gas the final two quarters against the St. Vincent Mustangs in the NCL II opener for both teams.
Kai Young scored 22 points and Kyle Grandi added 11 to account for nearly all of the Cougars’ scoring.
Upper Lake will be without Sammy Avalos for the remainder of the season because of academic ineligibility.
Upper Lake cut St. Vincent’s lead to one point late in the second quarter and trailed only 29-24 at halftime. The Mustangs began to pull away in the third quarter and a 16-4 surge in the final-period secured their victory.
“They had some shooters really knock down some shots near the end of the third quarter and early into the fourth,” Upper Lake coach Nick Williamson said.
Upper Lake’s JV squad is off until Jan. 22 when it plays Roseland University Prep in Santa Rosa. The Cougars’ varsity squad hosts Technology on Friday at 7 p.m.
