UPPER LAKE — Louis Avalos paid his own special tribute to Kobe Bryant on Tuesday night as the Upper Lake Cougars beat Credo High School 50-46 in a North Central League II varsity boys basketball game at Upper Lake.
Bryant, the retired Los Angeles Lakers superstar, died along with eight others Sunday morning when the helicopter they were riding in crashed near the city of Calabasas in Los Angeles County.
Avalos, a senior guard who normally wears No. 2, donned a No. 24 jersey — one of two numbers worn by Bryant when he played with the Lakers and both since retired by the team. Avalos also delivered a short speech about Bryant after the starting lineups were announced.
“He asked to wear No. 24 and I told him he could,” Upper Lake head coach Tony Arroyo said. “It was an emotional night for him and a lot of other Lakers fans up here, we have quite a few. He was definitely fired up. I knew from the start he was going to have a good night.”
Avalos responded with a 21-point performance, including two 3-pointers, to lead the Cougars (2-2 league, 14-5 overall) back to the .500 mark in league play.
“They tried to guard him man-to-man but he was just too quick,” Arroyo said. “He just kept going right around them.”
In fact, it was Upper Lake’s quickness versus Credo’s size the entire game, and quickness won out in the end, according to Arroyo, who said the Gryphon’s offense depends on putbacks and free throws to function.
“We could not keep them off the boards,” Arroyo said.
Likewise the Gryphon couldn’t handle Upper Lake’s overall team speed.
“They tried to press us and we scored off of that pretty easy,” Arroyo said.
The two teams were never separated by more than six points until early in the fourth quarter. Upper Lake gradually increased its lead to 12 by mid-quarter before Credo rallied down the stretch.
Dalton Slater had 11 points for the Cougars and Benat Love finished with six.
Upper Lake opens the second half of its league schedule Friday at home against St. Vincent, hoping to avenge a 50-44 loss to the Mustangs on Jan. 14 in Petaluma.
“Now we’ve got a little momentum going,” Arroyo said of the Cougars’ second straight league win.
In the junior varsity game, Kyle Grandi outscored Credo 16-10 in the third quarter and had as many points as the entire Rohnert Park team (33) as the Cougars prevailed 52-33 to improve to 2-1 in league play.
Upper Lake took a 25-11 lead into halftime. Grandi, who finished with five 3-pointers, had three of them in the third quarter when he scored all 16 of the Cougars’ points in the period.
“He was just hot,” Upper Lake coach Nick Williamson said. “I told him to stop shooting when he missed one, and he didn’t miss one for a while.”
Grandi went 5-for-7 from behind the 3-point arc.
Kai Young added 10 points and a 3-pointer while Blaine Rhodes finished with seven points and a 3-pointer.
In other boys action Tuesday:
Middletown 48, St. Helena 45
At Middletown, leading by 12 points entering the fourth quarter, the Middletown Mustangs had to hang on down the stretch to beat the St. Helena Saints in NCL I action.
It was the second win in as many nights for the Mustangs (5-4, 12-8), who were coming off a 78-59 win at home on Monday against Kelseyville, a game during which senior Jimmy Rockwell scored 34 points with nine 3-pointers. Twenty-four hours later Rockwell came back with a respectable outing of 14 points and three more treys, but it was fellow senior Andres Cervantes who led the way with a near-triple-double performance of 19 points, 17 rebounds and seven steals.
“He was all over the place,” Middletown head coach G.J. Rockwell said.
Cervantes’ final two points were by the biggest as they sealed the victory. St. Helena had closed to 46-43 with seven seconds remaining. The Mustangs missed both ends of a double-bonus free-throw opportunity but Cervantes rebounded the second miss and scored to make it 48-43.
St. Helena scored as time ran out.
“They just started hitting shots and it got away from us,” Rockwell said of the Saints’ 16-7 fourth quarter. “We did enough at the end to close it out.”
Cervantes scored six of Middletown’s seven points in the final period.
Sammy Cervantes joined his brother and Rockwell in double figures with 11 points.
“We’ll take ’em any way we can get ’em,” Rockwell said of the victory.
Middletown hits the road Friday to play Clear Lake. The Cardinals (8-0) are home Wednesday night against Willits before facing the Mustangs.
In the JV game, Lucas DaCosta went off for 32 points, including three 3-pointers, as the Middletown Mustangs improved to 8-1 in league play and 18-3 overall with a 77-72 victory over the St. Helena Saints.
Middletown’s defense struggled without point guard Luke Hoogendoorn, who was limited to only a handful of minutes because of illness, according to Middletown coach Jon Hoogendoorn.
“Everything we do is predicated on communication,” Hoogendoorn said. “He’s the guy who anchors things down.”
While the Mustangs’ defense struggled, no so the offense led by DaCosta, Cole Ketchum (11 points), Roberto Chaires (10 points) and Brody Breeden and Zach Dubois (nine points apiece).
Middletown fell behind 20-10 in the first quarter but went on a run to cut the Saints’ lead to 22-21 by the end of the period. The Mustangs took a 38-37 lead into halftime before taking control of the game with a 25-12 third quarter.
St. Helena got as close as four points down the stretch.
“They had a couple of big, big boys that we had a hard time matching,” Hoogendoorn said of the Saints.
St. Helena’s Will Meyer scored 30 points, including five 3-pointers.
“I’ve never had a guy score 30 against me,” Hoogendoorn said.
The Mustangs face a first-place showdown Friday when they travel to Lakeport to play Clear Lake (7-1, 18-1). Clear Lake is home Wednesday against Willits before hosting Middletown.
