UPPER LAKE — The Upper Lake Cougars are halfway home in the North Central League II varsity girls basketball race after dissecting Credo High School of Rohnert Park 59-31 on Tuesday night at Upper Lake.
Upper Lake improved to 4-0 in league play and 16-3 overall as it pursues its first league title of any sort (co-championship or undisputed) since the 2003-04 team earned a share of the NCL II crown. The Cougars begin the second half Friday at home against St. Vincent, another huge game for head coach Mike Smith’s young squad.
“I have not allowed myself to think about that,” Smith said when asked to assess the Cougars’ chances of winning their first league title in 16 years.
Added Smith of his team’s first half, “We’ve had a statement game against each of these teams (St. Vincent, Roseland University Prep, Sonoma Academy and Credo). Now we have to follow it up (in the second half).”
Upper Lake’s game Friday against St. Vincent is a rematch of the Jan. 14 meeting in Petaluma won by the Cougars 45-31.
Though Upper Lake’s offense sputtered in the first quarter against Credo, there was nothing wrong with a Cougars defense that held the Gryphon to just 15 points in the first three quarters.
“Our defense just played amazing tonight,” Smith said. “That defense was just swarming. We were all over the court.”
Credo led 7-6 after one quarter.
“We had a lot of missed layups in that quarter,” Smith said.
Upper Lake’s offense came alive during a 18-2 second quarter, pushing the Cougars in front 24-9 by halftime. The game became a full-fledged rout in the third quarter as Upper Lake boosted its lead to 45-15.
Pretty much everyone was involved in the win, according to Smith, something reflected in Upper Lake’s ultra-balanced scoring. Heaven’Lee Loans Arrow led the way with 15 points, Zoey Petrie finished with 12, Karlee Zimmerschied and Alana Sanchez each had 10, and Madison Noble came off the bench to add nine points and 15 rebounds, just missing a double-double. Meanwhile point guard Maddy Young was running the offense and the defense to near perfection, according to Smith, who said the addition of Petrie, who missed most of the preseason after transferring from Clear Lake High School following the fall sports season, has given the Cougars much more flexibility.
While both Young and Petrie are natural point guards, Petrie’s ability to score in double figures any given game has freed up Young to do what she does best, handle the ball as the Cougars’ floor general and anchor the Cougars’ stingy defense.
“Adding Zoey to the mix has taken a lot of pressure off Maddy,” Smith said. “Her 12-14 points a game is huge for us. Maddy can just concentrate on distributing the ball and running the offense, and she can make a lot of things happen.”
Young led Upper Lake with eight assists and eight steals.
Sanchez, the only senior in Upper Lake’s starting lineup, also turned in a strong performance as did Loans Arrow, according to Smith.
“Alana in the post was very solid and Heaven had her normal solid game,” Smith said. “Noble off the bench played great.”
The Cougars had five 3-pointers, two of them by Petrie.
In the junior varsity game, Upper Lake dispatched Credo 43-25 behind 16 points and 15 rebounds from Taylar Minnis, 15 points from Lupy Monlo-Duncan and six points from Tristin Rhodes.
“We had great defense by Nathaly Velasco,” Upper Lake coach Angelina Arroyo said. “Tristin had some super passes to Tay to get the score rolling.”
Arroyo also praised Monlo-Duncan’s leadership during the game as the Cougars remained undefeated in the NCL II standings.
“I told her to drive and get fouls and she did,” Arroyo said.
