KELSEYVILLE — The Lower Lake Trojans registered their first win of the season and their first North Central League I victory, 47-25, against the Kelseyville Knights on Tuesday night during varsity girls basketball action at Kelseyville High School.
“Getting your first W is always going to bring that morale up,” Lower Lake head coach Shannon Tubbs said as the Trojans squared their league record at 1-1 while improving to 1-5 overall. Kelseyville fell to 0-2 and 1-7.
Serenity McCoy’s 13 points led a balanced Lower Lake attack that also featured nine points from both Tiahna Tubbs and Izabella Salazar. Rebecca Theodorou added six points while also leading the Trojans in rebounds.
“We had balanced scoring tonight and that was kind of nice,” Tubbs said. “Theodorou had a great game on the boards, she dominated the glass.”
Lower Lake led 16-9 after one quarter, 24-13 at halftime and 36-19 through three quarters.
“Salazar and Tubbs had a good game on defense,” Tubbs said. “They created a lot of turnovers. McCoy got off to a hot start, she had 10 of her 13 in the first half. She finally broke out tonight.”
Kelseyville was led by Olivia Hommer’s nine points.
“The girls played better overall,” Kelseyville head coach Terry McIntire said of his young squad. “We were getting rebounds and were shooting the ball. All in all it’s probably the best game we’ve played so far.”
Lower Lake plays Upper Lake on Thursday at 3:30 p.m. in the opening round of the Stokes Tournament at Kelseyville. Later that night the host Knights take on Ferndale at 6:30 p.m.
In the junior varsity game Tuesday, Lower Lake scored with a little more than a minute remaining to edge Kelseyville 28-27. Brooke Benson led the Trojans with eight points and Mary Watson added six. Brianna Davis’ 12 points paced the Knights while Isabella Ostrand added seven.
The game was close throughout. Kelseyville led 12-10 at the half and it was 20-20 going to the fourth quarter.
“Offensively we need to get stronger with the ball,” Lower Lake coach Jessica Wiley said. “Kelseyville wanted this win and at times it seems like they wanted it more than us. Once we cleaned up our offense, with Alyxa Milano at the lead, we held it close. It was back and forth until the last minute. Defense wins games and that’s what helped us get the win. We have a young team with a drive to improve.”
Lower Lake (4-2) plays in the Pleasant Valley Tournament in Chico beginning Friday. Kelseyville is off until its next league game Jan. 3 against Fort Bragg.
In other girls basketball action Tuesday:
Upper Lake 57, Victory Christian 23
At Upper Lake, 11 different Upper Lake players scored as the Cougars improved to 2-0 in NCL II action and 6-0 overall with a 57-23 rout of Victory Christian.
Upper Lake led 21-4 after one quarter and then outscored Victory Christian 12-0 in the second quarter to go up 33-4 at halftime.
“The girls are playing well while working on their fundamentals,” Upper Lake co-head coach Raelene Cromwell said. “The starters played well and the girls coming off of the bench played well.”
Lupe Duncan-Monlo, Taylar Minnis and Heaven’Lee Loans Arrows led Upper Lake with eight points apiece. Duncan-Monlo had the Cougars’ only two 3-pointers.
Upper Lake returns to action Thursday against Lower Lake at 3:30 p.m. in the opening round of the Stokes Tournament at Kelseyville.
Middletown 51, Fort Bragg 22
At Middletown, Skylar Williams scored eight of her 12 points in the first quarter as Middletown opened up a 19-10 lead, and the Mustangs went on to rout the Fort Bragg Timberwolves in NCL I action, a rematch of the top two finishers in the league a year ago when Middletown went undefeated.
“We came out aggressive and were getting some steals,” Middletown head coach Roxi Hoogendoorn said. “We were putting it to them. Our defense never let up.”
Abigail Tacla also had 12 points for the Mustangs (2-0, 7-3) while Mia Hoogendoorn added 10.
Middletown’s defense limited Fort Bragg to four points in each of the final three quarters. Playing a 1-2-2 zone, the Mustangs swapped Hoogendoorn with Jaidyn Brown up top and it made a noticeable difference as the game went on, according to Hoogendoorn.
“We got a few more steals and it enabled Mia to help out with the rebounding,” Hoogendoorn said.
Brown, the team’s senior point guard, returned to the lineup after sitting out the Redwood Empire Invitational Basketball Tournament last weekend in Healdsburg, which left the Mustangs with only six players. On Tuesday, another starter, junior Amanda Hart, played sparingly after spraining her ankle while helping out with a youth basketball practice on Monday. Hart played only two minutes in the second quarter before retiring to the bench.
“She only played two minutes but those two minutes allowed us to rest some girls,” Hoogendoorn said.
Brown finished with seven points and Kamryn Atkins scored all five of her points in the second quarter as the Mustangs opened up a 27-14 halftime lead.
Despite behind short-handed again, the Mustangs stayed out of foul trouble while registering an easy victory against a team that pushed them to the limit several times last season, including in the playoffs.
“When I saw Amanda at school on crutches (Tuesday morning) I was starting to get a little nervous,” Hoogendoorn said. “But once again my girls got the job done.”
Maddie Triplett led the Timberwolves, now 1-1 in league play, with 12 points.
Middletown is off until Monday when it travels to Windsor for a non-league game.
In the JV game, Harley Holley scored 18 points as Middletown edged Fort Bragg 33-29 despite missing a lot of free throws.
“We came out playing very flat slow paced,” Middletown coach Jamie Burns said. “We ended up throwing on a full-court press in the fourth quarter and were able to gain a lead and hold them off.”
Caylee Saelor had eight points for the Mustangs,
Clear Lake 34, Willits 22
At Willits, it wasn’t pretty at times but the Clear Lake Cardinals did enough to win their NCL I opener against the Willits Wolverines.
“We had a lot of good looks, but we didn’t make a lot of shots,” Clear Lake head coach Phil Psalmonds said. “We came here and did our thing even if it wasn’t real pretty.”
Clear Lake (1-0, 3-2) led only 19-16 at halftime but gained some separation from the Wolverines with a 9-2 third quarter.
“Everybody played,” Psalmonds said.
Montana Wells led the Cardinals with nine points and Sierra Bruch had eight.
“Bruch played solid defense,” Psalmonds said. “If there was a standout for us, it was Sierra’s defense.”
Clear Lake is off until the Fort Bragg Tournament Dec. 27-29.
In JV action, Clear Lake beat Willits. The score wasn’t reported.
