UPPER LAKE — Taking a giant step toward a North Central League II championship, the Upper Lake Cougars flexed their considerable basketball muscle on Friday night with a 59-46 home win over the St. Vincent Mustangs in varsity girls action at Upper Lake.
If you bought Upper Lake stock earlier this season, it’s paying huge dividends right now as the young Cougars (5-0 league, 17-3), who start two freshmen and two sophomores, continue to stack up the victories. They’ve won five straight and have three league games remaining plus an interlock contest before the close of the regular season. Then they’ll be off to the North Coast Section Division 5 playoffs, perhaps as a league champion for the first time since 2004.
“We still have a lot of things to work on,” Upper Lake head coach Mike Smith said. “We want to continue improving.”
Alana Sanchez scored nine of her team-high 22 points in the first quarter as the Cougars set the tone for the game by opening up a 22-12 first-quarter lead.
“She established herself in the paint early,” Smith said of Sanchez, the Cougars’ senior center who finished the night with a double-double as she pulled down 10 rebounds.
Sanchez didn’t have the only double-double on the team. Freshman Heaven’Lee Loans arrow added 13 points and 24 rebounds.
“We’ve had some slow starts, so it was nice to be able to go out and get some scoring early,” Smith said.
Upper Lake upped its lead to 34-19 by halftime.
In a game that turned even more physical in the second half as the frustrated Mustangs tried to work their way back into it, Smith said the Cougars did a good job keeping their cool.
“Our girls stayed very focused,” Smith said of some hard fouls directed Upper Lake’s way. “We did a good job of not reacting to it. We got to the free-throw line and took care of business.”
Loans Arrow made four free throws down the stretch and Zoey Petrie added three more to keep Upper Lake’s lead in double digits coming down the stretch. Petrie finished with 11 points.
Upper Lake point guard Maddy Young led the team with seven assists and seven steals and Madison Noble came off the bench to score four points and grab 12 rebounds.
“Her floor-general mentality keeps on impressing me,” Smith said of the freshman Young.
In the junior varsity game, Upper Lake beat St. Vincent 48-20 to remain undefeated in the NCL II standings. The Cougars, now 15-4 overall, were led by Tristin Rhodes with 13 points, Lupy Monlo-Duncan with 12 and Taylar Minnis with eight.
“Great team effort today,” Upper Lake coach Angelina Arroyo said. “Incredible aggressive play by Tristin both on offense and defense.”
The Cougars got off to a bit of a slow start but quickly bounced back, according to Arroyo.
“They came out and scored on us a couple times before we figured out it was a real game and started playing like we know how,” Arroyo said. “We had solid play by Karla Martin, and Nathaly (Velasco) played super solid defense.
“I’m pretty proud of this team,” Arroyo added.
Upper Lake’s JV squad is on the road Monday to play Round Valley in a non-league game at Covelo and on the road again Tuesday to play Victory Christian Academy in a non-league game in Santa Rosa. The varsity Cougars also hit the road Tuesday to play Technology in NCL II interlock action at Rohnert Park.
