PETALUMA — Led by All-Tournament selection Cody Hayes, the Clear Lake High School varsity boys basketball team closed out a strong showing in the St. Vincent Tournament with a 59-43 win over Elite of Vallejo on Saturday afternoon in Petaluma.
Clear Lake won its final three of four games in the tournament to improve to 5-3 on the season. Head coach Mike Damiata said the Cardinals, many of whom joined the team only two weeks ago after taking part in the school’s extended run in the football playoffs, are starting to gel as a team.
“Elite was really athletic and their speed gave us problems in the first half,” Damiata said of the 29-26 deficit the Cardinals were facing at halftime. “We finally caught up to their speed in the second half and started to play really well.”
Hayes carried the team in the first half when he scored 19 of his team-leading 25 points.
“Cody kept us going in that first half,” Damiata said.
The junior had plenty of help in the second half as fellow junior Jake Soderquist erupted for 17 of his 19 points. His backcourt mate, freshman Jesse Hayes, added 10 points.
Cody Hayes also had another big game on the boards with 12 rebounds while Soderquist finished with eight rebounds and six assists.
Clear Lake had a 38-35 lead going to the fourth quarter.
“We locked them down in the fourth quarter with some really good defense,” Damiata said.
The Cardinals outscored Elite 21-8 to pull away during the final period.
Clear Lake is off until the Fort Bragg Tournament on Dec. 28-30 and Damiata said the Cardinals can use the practice time before jumping full force into their North Central League I schedule early next month.
“We’ll have six or seven practice between now and the tournament and we can use them,” Damiata said.
Clear Lake opened the St. Vincent Tournament on Thursday with a 62-23 loss to San Domenico but came back to beat Lower Lake, Westlake Christian and Elite.
“After that lethargic effort (against San Domenico), it was nice to see how well we played the rest of the way,” Damiata said.
In other boys tournament action Saturday:
Fortuna JVs 47, M’town JVs 37
M’town JVs 69, Fort Bragg JVs 30
At Cloverdale, the Middletown High School junior varsity squad beat Fort Bragg in the third-place game of the Cloverdale JV Tournament after losing earlier in the day to Fortuna in the winner’s semifinals.
Against Fort Bragg, Troy Taber led the Mustangs with 17 points, Aidan Wilson and Aron Bennett added 13 points apiece, and All-Tournament selection Anthony Bowerman had 10.
Middletown jumped out to a 25-4 lead and never looked back.
Against Fortuna, the Huskies took a one-point lead into the fourth quarter before pulling away from Middletown.
Bowerman led the Mustangs with 13 points, eight rebounds, seven blocks and six steals.
Middletown was minus the services of starter Jon Hawkins because of illness.
Clear Lake JVs 61, Healdsburg JVs 36
St. Helena JVs 62, Clear Lake JVs 59
At Cloverdale, after beating Healdsburg early Saturday, the Clear Lake High School JV team fell to St. Helena in the consolation championship game of the Cloverdale JV Tournament.
Against Healdsburg, Zane McAuley led the Cardinals with 17 points while AJ Bruch added nine. In the loss to St. Helena, McAuley again led the way, this time with 19 points, Peyton Portlock finished with 12 and Sawyer Smith had 11.
Kelseyville JVs def. Upper Lake JVs
Upper Lake 57, Round Valley 52
At Upper Lake, the Upper Lake High School JV squad finished second its own tournament behind champion Kelseyville.
Kelseyville defeated Upper Lake early Saturday (score not available) before the Cougars came back to beat Round Valley behind 19 points from Connor Vogel, 15 from Landon Robinson and 10 from Beaux Stiritz.
Robinson made two key buckets down the stretch for the Cougars in their win over Round Valley while Vogel sank some clutch free throws and had a couple of blocks that kept Upper Lake in front. Stiritz also led the team with six assists.
Round Valley ended up third in the tournament and Mendocino came in fourth.
