SAN FRANCISCO — Montana Wells and Abby Mertle are two of the biggest reasons why the Clear Lake High School varsity girls basketball team is still alive and very much kicking after scoring a 39-30 upset of No. 7 seed International on Tuesday night in a first-round game of the North Coast Section Division 5 playoffs at San Francisco.
Wells scored 14 points and Mertle 10 as the senior-dominated and 10th-seeded Cardinals (17-7) punched their ticket to the quarterfinal round Friday when they again return to San Francisco, this time to play No. 2 seed University High School (21-4) at 7 p.m. University had a first-round bye Tuesday.
“She had a great game,” Clear Lake head coach Phil Psalmonds said of Wells. “Abby and Montana controlled the boards. Our posts definitely outplayed their posts.”
International’s speed, which was was evident from the opening tip, according to Psalmonds, changed Clear Lake’s strategy from the outset.
“We had to slow it down,” Psalmonds said. “We weren’t going to run with them.”
International attempted to press the Cardinals only to be beaten for some easy layups.
“So they went into a 1-2-2 zone, like Middletown runs, and we were able to swing the ball, get into our sets,” he said.
When that didn’t work, International once again tried to pressure Clear Lake only to give up more easy layups.
When the Jaguars were on the attack, Clear Lake alternated between man-to-man and zone defenses, sometimes switching during the same possession, according to Psalmonds.
“At some points they didn’t know what to run,” Psalmonds said.
Clear Lake continued to mix up its defenses throughout the game and International was never able to quite figure it out, according to Psalmonds.
“We got some clock (30-second possession) violations,” Psalmonds added.
Clear Lake led 12-9 after one quarter, 25-20 at halftime and 35-24 going to the final period.
Wells and Mertle scored most of their points on mid-range jumpers as they penetrated the International zone.
“We used a lot of screens and cross screens to set them up,” Psalmonds said.
Sierra Bruch added eight points in the victory.
“As a team we played our best game of the year offensively and defensively,” Psalmonds added. “We had to play our best game to win. They had better athletes but we had better basketball players. I’m really proud of the way the girls stepped up.”
