MIDDLETOWN — The Middletown Mustangs set the stage for their Friday showdown with Cloverdale by beating the Fort Bragg Timberwolves 37-27 on Tuesday night in North Central League I varsity girls basketball action at Middletown.
Middletown takes a 10-1 league and 15-7 overall record into Friday’s road contest with Cloverdale (11-0, 19-2), needing a victory to pull into a first-place tie. If the Mustangs lose, the Eagles will clinch no worse than a tie for a second straight league championship.
“We’ve got the defense that can put the clamps on them,” Middletown head coach Andy Brown said.
The worrisome part for Brown is an inconsistent Mustangs offense.
“Thirty-seven points isn’t going to beat Cloverdale,” Brown said of the Mustangs’ lack of production in their win over Fort Bragg.
Still, there’s no faulting a Middletown defense that can’t play much better, according to Brown.
“I can’t ask for any better defense. We held them (Timberwolves) to 11 points in the first half,” Brown said.
Middletown might have scored a few more points on Tuesday had Abbey Brown not left the game early in the third quarter with a twisted ankle. While Brown expects her to play Friday against Cloverdale, he wasn’t going to risk her in the second half against the Timberwolves.
“We had the lead, so there was no reason to bring her back,” Brown said.
Sophie Kucer scored seven of her team-leading 12 points in the first quarter as Middletown jumped out to an 11-4 lead. Paige Astley added 11 points in the win and Olivia Kucer had six.
Along with the drama centered around the league race in Friday’s Middletown-Cloverdale matchup, the Eagles’ Tehya Bird will be gunning for her 2,000th career point. The four-year varsity veteran was held out of Cloverdale’s 51-15 win at St. Helena on Tuesday so that she could hit the milestone at home against Middletown. She needs five more points.
In Tuesday’s JV action, Middletown beat Fort Bragg 43-19 behind 12 points from Brooklyn Huffman, eight from Jaidyn Brown and eight from Kamryn Atkins, who also had 12 rebounds. Brown added six assists.
In other girls action Tuesday:
Upper Lake 66, Technology 30
At Rohnert Park, the Upper Lake Cougars improved to 18-3 overall with a solid NCL II interlock victory over the Technology Titans.
Zoey Petrie finished with 18 points, Heaven’Lee Loans Arrow added 16 and Alana Sanchez had 14 to power Upper Lake’s balanced scoring attack.
After a bit of a slow start — Upper Lake led just 12-7 after one quarter — the Cougars really got it going, according to head coach Mike Smith, who said that crisp ball movement was the key.
Loans Arrow, who also pulled down 10 rebounds to finish with another double-double, scored seven points in the second quarter and Sanchez added six more as the Cougars outscored the Titans 19-5 in the period.
“Then we got the press going and got baskets off of turnovers,” Smith said.
Point guard Maddy Young added four points and four assists.
Upper Lake resumes its NCL II schedule Friday at home against Roseland University Prep. It’s Upper Lake’s final home game of the regular season and the team will honor its lone senior, Sanchez, prior to the opening tipoff.
There was no JV game.
Kelseyville 60, Willits 52
At Willits, the Kelseyville Knights moved back above .500 in NCL I play with a victory over the Willits Wolviernes, a game that featured 10 Kelseyville 3-pointers, seven of them by senior Allison Bryant, who scored all of her team-leading 21 points from behind the arc.
In fact, Bryant went 7-for-10 from behind the 3-point line. Her big night also included 11 rebounds, five assists, three steals and three blocks.
Hitting the boards hard in the second half, Kelseyville outscored Willits 19-5 in the third quarter to erase a 32-30 halftime deficit.
Between the rebounding of Bryant, Ryann Taylor (nine rebounds) and Sam Carter (seven rebounds), the Knights reversed a first-half trend that let the Wolverines get too many second-shot opportunities, according to Kelseyville head coach Skyler Olsen.
“We completely turned the game around with our rebounds … we started boxing out … and with our defense,” she said. “Our press in the third quarter gave us a lot of fastbreaks.”
Sarah Parlee and Kasandra Villalobos scored eight points apiece for the Knights, Taylor had seven and Emily Sandoval and Paloma Ortiz had six each.
In the JV game, Kelseyville beat Willits 47-41 behind a big night from Larue Furlani, who led the team with 27 points and 14 rebounds. Kaylei Davis added 11 points.
The Knights are home Friday to play Lower Lake.
