LAKEPORT — Whether or not the Cardinals’ season lasts one more game or many more games, Clear Lake High School head coach Mike Damiata said he was happy to provide his seniors with a proper home sendoff Tuesday night as they beat Cornerstone Christian 63-52 in the opening round of the North Coast Section Division 5 boys basketball playoffs at Lakeport.
Clear Lake (13-8), the No. 6 seed, is unlikely to get another home game, so playing a final time before the home crowd was a nice reward for the team’s seven seniors, who missed all of their junior season because of COVID-19 and have had to endure a senior year littered with numerous COVID-19-caused interruptions.
“After everything they’ve been through and had to endure, it was great to get them one more home game,” said Damiata, who said his players have the proper attitude to get them through what has been a season from hell.
“We’re really loose right now and having fun,” Damiata said after Clear Lake’s fifth win in its last six games. “It’s fun to coach these guys. There’s no pressure on us, so we’re going to have fun.”
Clear Lake’s win moves the team into Friday’s quarterfinals against No. 3 seed Athenian (17-3) at Athenian High School in Danville at 7 p.m. The Owls beat Redwood Christian 78-56 in first-round play Tuesday. The winner of that game advances to the semifinals next Tuesday at a site to be determined.
“We’re going to go down there and give it our best shot,” Damiata said.
Clear Lake certainly gave Cornerstone Christian of Antioch its best shot in the first quarter, rolling out 22 points, 20 of which came from three players — Zane Robinson with seven, Ethan Maize with seven and Jack Daskam with six.
“We came out of the gate really strong,” Damiata said of the 22-14 lead the Cardinals held after one quarter.
Cornerstone Christian closed the gap to 35-30 at halftime despite losing one of its players to a knee injury that temporarily halted the game as medics had to be called to the Clear Lake High School gym.
“We could have easily been up by 15 at halftime but we were sluggish in the second quarter, we made some silly passes, which is a problem we had earlier in the season,” Damiata said.
Clear Lake did a better job of handling the ball as the second half opened and its improved play on defense allowed the Cardinals to widen their lead to 50-37 through three quarters.
“We played really good defense, both Jack and Maddox (Albaum) did a really good job inside,” Damiata said.
Cornerstone Christian stayed in a 2-2-1 press most of the game.
“We broke it and really didn’t have much of a problem with it,” Damiata said.
Daskam and Maize finished with 15 points apiece while Robinson added 11 and Joey Soderquist nine.
“Joey hit some big shots for us,” Damiata said.
In another first-round Division 5 game Tuesday:
Cloverdale 87, Upper Lake 62
At Cloverdale, the No. 1-seeded Cloverdale Eagles improved to 24-1 with a victory over Upper Lake.
The Eagles did have to endure a bit of a scare in the second quarter when Upper Lake, trailing 26-11 after one period, closed to within four points.
“We were down by four with two minutes left in the first half,” Upper Lake head coach Miles Hayes said. “Then we made three bad turnovers in a row and Cloverdale took advantage.”
In fact, the Eagles pushed their lead back up to 15 before the end of the half – 45-30.
“They hit a ton of 3s, maybe 10,” Hayes said of the Eagles, the co-North Central League I champions this season. “They can really shoot the ball, especially in their own gym.”
Kai Young’s final high school game for Upper Lake (11-11) certainly was a memorable one as he led the Cougars with 30 points, including four 3-pointers. Sammy Avalos added 16 points and Kyle Grandi nine.
“The kids played hard,” Hayes said. “They gave me what they had.”
Cloverdale’s much deeper bench came into play throughout the game.
“They were able to give their guys a break,” Hayes said. “Four of my starting guys never came out of the game. We just don’t have the bench.”
Cloverdale draws No. 8 seed St. Vincent of Petaluma in Friday’s quarterfinals at 7 p.m. at Cloverdale High School. St. Vincent beat No. 9 Technology 49-42 on Tuesday.
