LAKE COUNTY — With machine-like precision, the Clear Lake High School varsity boys basketball team dispatched the Kelseyville Knights 70-32 to clinch a share of the North Central League I title nearly a year ago today in Lakeport.
Until the COVID-19-delayed 2020-21 sports season starts, the Lake County Record-Bee will take a look back at the local sports happenings of a year ago and the teams and athletes who were making the headlines.
Varsity boys basketball
After honoring seniors Tyler Cerini, Darius Ford, Travis Howe, Jaron Mertle, Wasif Hussain and Blaine Dutcher during pre-game ceremonies, the Clear Lake Cardinals got about their business of securing no worse than a league co-championship for the second straight season.
Following on the heels of their 14-0 run to an undisputed title during the 2018-19 campaign, the Cardinals improved to 13-0 in league action and 22-3 overall with a dominating performance against archrival Kelseyville (3-10), which was shooting for a third straight win in North Central League I play.
With the team’s seniors playing the entire first quarter, Clear Lake opened up a 14-8 lead. Back to its regular lineup to open the second quarter, the Cardinals outscored the Knights 19-3 in the period to take a 33-11 lead into halftime.
“It was senior night and there was a lot of emotion,” Clear Lake head coach Scott De Leon said. “We came out and were a little sloppy. We really kinda got it going in the second quarter and again in the third quarter. We just turned up the pressure, ran our stuff and played tremendous defense.”
Kelseyville found itself at an even greater disadvantage when Joey Mendonca, the Knights’ best player down low, ran into early foul trouble and departed for the bench. That made the job of Clear Lake’s two bigs, Jaron Mertle and Tyler Cerini, that much easier. Mertle finished with a team-best 18 points and eight rebounds, five of them on the offensive boards, while Cerini added 12 points and 10 rebounds, six of them offensive.
“Their length and size makes it real tough,” Kelseyville head coach Jeremy Linnell said of the Cardinals’ big men. “We were hoping to compete a little better, but they’re a good team.”
“We were dominant inside,” De Leon added of the play of Mertle and Cerini.
Ford added another 14 points, including three 3-pointers, and Treppa Marcks came off the bench to score 10 points.
Clear Lake’s stingy defense held Mendonca scoreless while Bodhi Baird, the Knights’ top outside shooter, finished with only four points.
“(Travis) Howe did a great job on him (Baird), held him two points in the first three quarters,” De Leon said. “He was their high scorer the first time we played them, he’s a good shooter.”
“He was a little under the weather, but they did make it hard on him,” Linnell said. “We just didn’t function in our offense.”
Cory Holt’s 10 points led the Knights and Tyler Linnell added six.
Junior varsity
In the junior varsity game, Kelseyville eliminated Clear Lake from the league title race with a 54-47 victory. Clear Lake (9-4) fell two games behind leader Cloverdale (11-2) with only one game remaining.
Trailing 22-8 at halftime and down by as many as 20 points during the game, the Cardinals made a late charge but were never closer than the final score.
“We didn’t have enough left in the tank to get over the top,” Clear Lake coach Scott Persons said. “Kelseyville just beat us tonight.”
After losing to the Cardinals in overtime last month in Kelseyville, Knights coach Oscar Lopez said it was nice to beat Clear Lake, especially on its own floor.
“It felt great,” he said. “But they (Cardinals) scrapped and clawed at the end. It was nerve-racking.”
Luke Watkins and Kyle Leary led the Knights with 13 points apiece while Tyler Leary added 11 and Derek Huggins nine.
Zane Robinson’s 14 points paced the Cardinals, Jack Daskam had 12 and Ethan Maize 11.
