Trojans hold off Knights, Mustangs fall to Wildcats
Upper Lake cruises past Point Arena 57-10
>> Despite watching a 17-point lead late in the third quarter shrink to one with 4:33 left in the game, the Lower Lake Trojans held on to beat the Kelseyville Knights 53-48 in second-round girls action Friday night at the 49th annual Stokes Basketball Tournament in Kelseyville.
The victory moved them into Saturday’s Stokes finals against Ferndale.
“Last week we couldn’t win a game (in the Durham Tournament), now we’re playing for a championship,” Lower Lake head coach Shannon Tubbs said.
Lower Lake improved to 2-0 in tournament action and 3-6 on the season with its third straight win. The Trojans’ first victory also came against Kelseyville, 56-37, in a North Central League I game on Tuesday in Lower Lake. The rematch turned out to be a lot closer although it looked like it would be a repeat of Tuesday late in the third quarter with Lower Lake ahead 4326 with less than two minutes remaining in the period.
And then it got interesting … in a hurry. The Knights (0-7) closed the third quarter with a 7-0 run and began the fourth quarter with a 9-0 run capped by a long twopoint field goal from Olivia Hommer, who hit a 3-pointer her previous trip down the floor to make it 43-40. Her two-point shot shaved the deficit to 43-42.
After the two teams exchanged baskets to make it 45-44, Lower Lake senior guard Margarita Cordova nearly single-handedly wrestled momentum back in the Trojans’ favor, which came as no surprise to Tubbs.
“She’s the heart and soul of this group,” Tubbs said of Cordova, who scored eight of her 12 points in the game’s final four minutes. “As she goes, we go.”
Cordova sank four pressure-packed free throws down the stretch and also made two huge baskets — the first put Lower Lake up 47-44 and the other made it 52-46 with a little more than a minute to play.
The Knights closed to 5248 on a Larue Furlani basket but were called for traveling with 35.4 seconds remaining. The Trojans worked time off the clock before Cordova was fouled and hit the front end of a one-and-one to seal the victory.
Cordova was joined in double digits by teammates Tiahna Tubbs (15 points) and Kyleigh Mock (11 points). Tubbs scored 28 on Thursday in a blowout win over Point Arena.
“Getting a third scorer is huge,” Tubbs said of his daughter, who had a rough start to her season. “That helps fill that gap we’ve had after Margo and Kyleigh. The game was a little closer than I would have liked it, but I’ll take it.”
The Knights, to their credit, didn’t go easily or quietly. Junior guard Mikaylah Meyer scored seven of her 11 points in the third quarter to fuel the comeback bid, including a 3-pointer that cut Lower Lake’s lead to 43-31. Hommer (10 points) scored soon after on a layup to make it 43-33, which was the score entering the final period.
Emily Sandoval, the Knights’ top scorer with 16 points, also had a big hand in the exciting finish, including sinking three straight free throws after being fouled on a 3-point try midway through the third quarter.
In other Stokes girls action Friday:
Ferndale 48, Middletown 35
One night after playing their best game of the season in a 62-44 victory over Upper Lake, the Middletown Mustangs struggled from the field against a Ferndale Wildcats team that parlayed 20 points from Haidyn Fulton and 17 more from Kyla Albee into a win that moves them into Saturday’s championship game against Lower Lake.
“We outsized them but they’re much quicker,” Middletown head coach Andy Brown said of the Wildcats. “At no point in the game did we have any kind of offensive flow going.”
And part of the reason was Ferndale’s quickness, according to Brown.
“They’re fast on defense,” he said.
Paige Astley’s tough night — only six points and no 3-pointers for the Middletown senior after scoring 18 with four 3-pointers on Thursday against Upper Lake — translated into a tough night for the rest of the Mustangs.
“When Paige is off a little bit, we seem to be off a little bit,” Brown said.
The Mustangs’ hiccups on offense aren’t new but are becoming a source of concern for Brown.
“We’ve got to fix whatever it is we’re not doing that is slowing us down,” Brown said.
Middletown (6-4) led 10-6 after a stop-and-start first quarter during which multiple jump balls and plentiful fouls slowed the action to a crawl. It was more of the same in the second quarter as Ferndale pushed ahead 16-15 on a pair of Fulton free throws with 1:05 left in the half. Middletown never saw the lead again. Albee scored on a transition layup in the final seconds of the quarter to make it 18-15.
Middletown followed up a five-point second quarter with an eight-point third quarter as Ferndale was getting its offense rolling behind Fulton and Albee. The Wildcats took a 35-23 advantage into the fourth quarter and pushed their lead to as many as 18 points late in the period.
No Middletown player scored in double digits. Jaidyn Brown and Skylar Williams led the team with eight points apiece while Astley and Amanda Hart each had six.
Two Mustangs fouled out — Kamryn Atkins with 6:50 remaining and Ella Rockwell with 2:05 left — before it was over.
Upper Lake 57, Point Arena 10
Upper Lake bounced back from its Thursday loss to Middletown with an easy win over the Point Arena Pirates.
The Cougars (9-2) emptied their bench early on against a Pirates team that trailed 15-2 after one quarter and 26-3 at halftime.
Zoey Petrie led Upper Lake with 14 points while Heaven’Lee Loans Arrow and Taylar Minnis each had 10. Lupy Duncan added seven.