L
OWER LAKE — The Lower Lake Trojans put up a barrage of 3-pointers but still came up short against the St. Helena Saints, 72-58 winners on Thursday night in the North Central League I finale for both of these varsity boys basketball teams at Lower Lake High School.
St. Helena (12-4) guaranteed itself no worse than a share of second place in the NCL I standings with its victory. Cloverdale (14-0) has already clinched the league title while Clear Lake (11-4) and Kelseyville (11-4) each have one game remaining. Clear Lake hosts Cloverdale on Thursday night and Kelseyville visits Willits.
“We had some good momentum to end the third quarter,” Lower Lake head coach Bryce Brin said as the Trojans (5-11, 11-4) cut a 36-23 St. Helena halftime lead to 50-42 entering the final period.
Unfortunately for the Trojans, a handful of turnovers to open the fourth quarter allowed the Saints to push their lead back into double digits where it remained the rest of the game.
“But I was proud of them, they kept fighting,” Brin said.
Jett Guralas led Lower Lake with 21 points, including five of the team’s dozen 3-pointers. Dylan Sherman added 14 points and four 3-pointers, and Charles Jones had 10 points.
“When he got going, it got us back into the game,” Brin said of Guralas.
St. Helena started strong and led 22-12 after one quarter.
“The first quarter was a little unfortunate,” Brin said of the Trojans’ slow start. “We didn’t get going offensively in the first quarter.”
St. Helena also won the junior varsity game. The final score wasn’t reported.
