UPPER LAKE — The Upper Lake Cougars return home Wednesday night to play the Portola Tigers in the opening round of the NorCal Regional girls basketball playoffs, which is part of the CIF State Championships. Tip-off is 6 p.m. at the Upper Lake High gym.
By the time the Cougars (28-2) and Tigers (20-11) take the floor Wednesday, they’ll know who the winner is going to face Thursday in the quarterfinal round and where. With the exception of the Upper Lake-Portola game, which was rescheduled from Tuesday night because of travel concerns for the Portola team, all other NorCal first-round games took place Tuesday night. The Upper Lake-Portola winner meets the Bret Harte-Tulare Union at the home of the highest surviving seed. Upper Lake is No. 6, Portola is No. 11, Bret Harte is No. 3 and Tulare Union No. 14. If Bret Harte wins, the quarterfinal will take place at Angels Camp.
After Thursday’s quarterfinals, action shifts to semifinal-round games Saturday. The NorCal Division 5 championship game is Tuesday, March 7. The NorCal Regional and SoCal Regional winners play for the state title March 10 at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.
Upper Lake has reached the NorCal finals on two occasions (1991 and 1993). Clear Lake’s girls also made it 1989.
Unless Bret Harte is upset by Tulare Union on Tuesday night, the Cougars are likely playing their final home game Wednesday night against Portola, a team that beat them in the opening round of the NorCals three years ago in Portola. So far this postseason Upper Lake is 3-0 at home following section wins against The Bay School of San Francisco, Head-Royce of Oakland and Mount Diablo of Concord. Mount Diablo (17-12) is the No. 10 seed in Division 5 and played No. 7 Valley Christian (25-3) in a first-round game Tuesday.
Upper Lake’s only playoff loss so far is a 63-33 setback to University in the North Coast Section Division 5 championship game last weekend at the Kezar Pavilion in San Francisco. University is the No. 1 seed in the NorCal Division 3 playoffs.
Upper Lake won its third straight North Central League II championship this season. The Cougars reeled off 21 straight victories until the loss to University.
Wednesday against Portola they have the opportunity to start a new winning streak.
