UPPER LAKE — When Maddy Young wasn’t stealing the ball, deflecting passes or just generally making The Bay School’s ballhandlers as miserable as they could possibly be Tuesday night, teammates Taylar Minnis and Jayme Zimmerschied were doing what they do best in a 47-29 win in the opening round of the North Coast Section Division 5 girls basketball playoffs at Upper Lake High School.
Upper Lake (26-1), the No. 4 seed, won’t know until Wednesday night who it is playing Friday in the quarterfinals at 7 p.m. in Upper Lake. That’s because a first-round game Tuesday between No. 12 seed Hoopa Valley and No. 5 Head-Royce of Oakland had to be postponed because Hoopa was snowed in and unable to make the trip to the Bay Area.
Whoever the three-time North Central League II defending champs draw Friday will likely have to put up with what The Bay School (13-11) had to endure Tuesday — a lot of Young’s in-your-face defense, Minnis’ domination down low, and Zimmerschied’s marksmanship from the perimeter — the junior sank four 3-pointers and added a three-point play among her 16 points.
Minnis, who like Young was in early foul trouble and had to sit out the last part of the first quarter as well as a portion of the second, owned the paint. If the senior center had shot a little better in the first quarter she might have finished with 30 points.
But even when the Cougars were struggling on offense in the first half, the defense was always there, with Young at the forefront.
Upper Lake led just 6-1 after one quarter.
“We told the girls that when you hold a team to one point, you have to celebrate that,” Upper Lake co-head coach Annie Pivniska-Petrie said. “We knew out shots would start to fall, we just needed to keep doing what we were doing.”
Even with Young and Minnis on the bench to start the second quarter, the Cougars began to figure it out offensively. Kali Minnis replaced her sister on the floor and sank two free throws to open the period. Reserve Ashlyn Rhodes then buried a 3-pointer to make it 11-1, and Zimmerschied railed a 3-pointer not long after for a 14-1 lead, her first points of the night.
“We have prepared for those situations all season,” Pivniska-Petrie said of those occasions when her starters aren’t on the floor for whatever reason — injury, illness or foul trouble.
The Bay School finally found the basket with 4:52 left in the quarter as Jordan Topacio sank a 3-pointer. Zimmerschied immediately answered with another trey to make it 17-4.
Upper Lake had a 20-6 lead late in the quarter before The Bay School worked itself back into the game with a 6-0 run in the final minute of the half.
The Breakers would never be as close in the second half as Taylar Minnis and Zimmerschied went to work. Minnis scored eight of her team-leading 17 points in the third quarter while Zimmerschied buried a 3-pointer before adding a three-point play on the very next Upper Lake possession to give the Cougars a 34-17 lead. She had seven points in the quarter.
“Zimmerschied is coming on at the right time with her shot,” Pivniska-Petrie said.
The Bay School was never closer than 12 points in the fourth quarter, and then only briefly. Right after Riley Topacio’s 3-pointer cut Upper Lake’s advantage to 37-25, Zimmerschied connected for her fourth and final 3-pointer to seal the win.
Young, in addition to her stellar defense, finished with five points, including a three-point plate late in the second quarter that pushed Upper Lake’s lead to 14 points. She also had a handful of nice assists, including one down low to Minnis midway through the third quarter as the Cougars moved ahead 28-14.
“The girls are trying to make sure they look for her (Minnis),” Pivniska-Petrie said.
If you like balance, you’ll love the Cougars. On Tuesday, their five starters combined for 26 points while their bench had the other 21.
“Everyone stepped up and played their part,” Pivniska-Petrie said. “We were also very impressed with the rebounding. We executed that real well.”
Friday’s quarterfinal-round winner advances to the semifinals next Tuesday against the winner of No. 1 seed Berean Christian and No. 8 Mount Diablo. That semifinal game takes place at the home of the highest surviving seed.
