LAKE COUNTY — Mike Smith said he knew he had talent, but not even Upper Lake High School’s veteran girls basketball coach saw this one coming.
Starting three freshmen, a sophomore and a senior for the majority of their 27 games during the 2019-20 season, Smith and the Upper Lake Cougars ended up going 22-5 and laying the foundation for even more success to follow.
Smith and three members of the Upper Lake High School squad have been named to the All-Lake County girls basketball team as selected by the Lake County Record-Bee. Not since the 1990-94 Cougars, who also started three freshmen in the first year of a four-year run that still stands as the best in the county’s basketball history (three league titles, three section crowns, four NorCal playoff berths and two NorCal title game appearances) has an Upper Lake girls team accomplished so much.
Upper Lake won the first undisputed North Central League II championship in the school’s girls basketball history, reached the semifinals of the North Coast Section Division 5 playoffs before losing to eventual section champion Cloverdale, and lost to Portola in the opening round of the NorCal Division playoffs.
Heaven’Lee Loans Arrow, a post player who finished in double digits in scoring and rebounds with regularity and one of the three starting freshmen for Smith, is the All-Lake County most valuable player. The first returns on Loans Arrow’s unlimited potential are just being realized, according to Smith, who said the same is true of his other young players.
First team
All five county schools landed one player each on the first team. Honored were Upper Lake sophomore Zoey Petrie, the team’s leading outside shooting threat. She is the daughter of Upper Lake principal Annie Pivniska Petrie, the starting point guard on Upper Lake’s glory teams of the early 1990s; sophomore Sydney Howe, a lockdown defensive specialist for the Clear Lake Cardinals who placed third in the tough NCL I standings this season behind champion Cloverdale and runner-up Middletown and went 1-1 in the Division 5 section playoffs; senior Allison Bryant, a versatile starter for the Kelseyville Knights capable of scoring both inside and outside, and a tenacious defender and shotblocker; senior Abbey Brown of Middletown, a strong post player who scored and rebounded in double digits in most of her games for the Mustangs, a Division 4 section qualifier; and senior Samantha Hughes of Lower Lake, a team leader and the best overall player for the Trojans, who finished .500 in league play and narrowly missed securing a sectional playoff berth.
Second team
Named to the All-County second team were Middletown sophomore Paige Astley and junior teammate Sophie Kucer; Clear Lake sophomore Rylee Mix; Upper Lake freshman point guard Maddy Young; and Lower Lake senior Alisha Jones, a reliable scorer and prolific rebounder for coach Shannon Tubbs’ Trojans.
