SUPER SEASON ENDS AT 29-3
Cougars start strong against Bret Harte before offense dries up in 49-24 NorCal quarterfinal loss
While it started out like so many of Upper Lake's games this season, with the Cougars feeding center Taylar Minnis down low for four quick points and an early lead, Thursday's NorCal quarterfinal-round matchup with the Bret Harte Bulldogs ended like no other Upper Lake playoff game has in a long, long time.
That will happen when you score only five points and no baskets in the second half.
“The basket was very small for us tonight,” Upper Lake co-head coach Annie Pivniska Petrie said following the Cougars' seasonending 49-24 loss on Bret Harte's homecourt and in front of a solid showing of Upper Lake fans who made the nearly four-hour drive to this Calaveras County town. “We worked hard on defense but on offense the ball would just not fall for us. We tried different things, nothing worked.”
While the Cougars' defense was its normal stingy self and caused the Bulldogs (24-7) all sorts of problems in the first quarter, Upper Lake's offense ceased to exist after a 15-8 first quarter that appeared to have the Cougars (29-3) well on their way to what would have been a 30th win, which would have broken both school and Lake County records for most wins in a single season.
Upper Lake not only went cold from the field after the first quarter, but it was as if every player on the team was flash frozen. The Cougars managed just one field goal over the final three quarters, a basket by reserve Ashlyn Wurm with 49.4 seconds left in the first half that tied the game at 19-19, which also was the halftime score.
The Cougars took a 20-19 lead to open the third quarter when Madison Noble hit the second of two free throws after drawing a shooting foul, and they wouldn't score again until Maddy Young hit the second of two free throws with 6:55 left in the game, by which time they were down 37-21.
While Upper Lake owned a 15-8 lead after the opening period, it didn't last long as the second quarter opened without the Cougars' best defender, senior Young, on the floor. She took an elbow to the eye late in the first quarter and missed the first minute and a half of the second while being tended to on the Upper Lake bench.
Without Young, Bret Harte's offense surged to life, with a big assist from senior guard CJ Desbouillons, who came off the bench to sink three 3-pointers in the quarter. The first one cut Upper Lake's lead to 15-13, the second gave the Bulldogs their first lead of the game at 16-15, and the third erased a 17-16 Upper Lake lead.
“Their coaching staff did a great job “first-year Bret Harte coach Jeff Eltringham said of Upper Lake's play on offense and defense in the opening quarter. “We've had a lot of success with our trap defense but it wasn't working against them and we had to come out of it and play more of a half-court game.”
Desbouillons' quick burst of offense changed the flow of the game, according to Eltringham.
“That was a decisive turning point for us,” he said.
Other Bret Harte players began to pick up the pace as well, namely senior Aariah Fox, who led the Bulldogs with 16 points. As Bret Harte outscored Upper Lake 18-1 in the third quarter to take complete control of the game, Fox scored 12 of those points, including an incredible spinning layup with 1:45 left that pushed the Bulldogs' lead to 3520. She added a final basket with 16.9 seconds remaining to make it 37-20.
Pivniska-Petrie used two timeouts during the quarter to rally the troops, but the Cougars couldn't hit any type of shot and even missed a layup.
“And we were taking good shots,” Pivniska-Petrie said. “I told them to be patient, work for a good shot, and they did. Nothing went in. We were waiting for someone to hit that first shot to get us going but it never happened.”
By the time the fourth quarter rolled around, the Cougars'
season was simply down to minutes. Young was the last of the senior starters to come off the floor and Pivnsika-Petrie greeted her with a hug, far better treatment than she received from the Bret Harte defense, which pounded her like a human piñata. In addition to the black eye she sustained at the end of the first quarter, Young hit the floor hard several times on drives to the basket in the fourth quarter, which put her on the line for nine free throws. She made only three, her legs gone by that point. But even with the game hopelessly lost down the stretch, Young never let up. She finished with a teambest 13 points, nine of those coming in the first quarter when she went 4-for-4 from the line and also made Upper Lake's only 3-pointer of the game.
While it was a tough way to end a season that featured a third straight North Central League II championships and a runner-up finish in North Coast Section Division 5, not to mention a 4-2 postseason record, PivniskaPetrie and co-head coach Raelene Cromwell said they let the Cougars know following the game that they were a special team.
“I knew they were a special group a long time ago,” said Cromwell, who has worked with many of the team's six seniors as far back as the third grade. “I knew what they were capable of and they accomplished what they came here to do.”
Added Pivniska-Petrie, “We told them that we loved them and are proud of them, that it was tough that their shots weren't falling tonight, but that's the way it is sometimes. The best thing about the seniors is their leadership. They are competitive and they are tough on their teammates, but in a good way. They understand that's what they need to do.”
Bret Harte advances to the semifinals and will play at home Saturday against Valley Christian, which upset No. 2 seed Santa Cruz 7068 on Thursday night. It's a rematch of the Sac-San Joaquin Section Division 5 championship game won 7165 by Valley Christian. No. 1 seed Fall River will play No. 12 Lincoln (San Francisco) in the other semifinal Saturday. Lincoln upset No. 4 Washington 46-42 in Thursday's action.
Eltringham said he's looking forward to the matchup as his Bulldogs now stand just a win away from reaching the NorCal Division 5 finals.
“It's rewarding,” Eltringham said of coaching a senior-dominated team that he took over at the beginning of the season.
“I was new but they accepted me,” Eltringham said of the veteran players. “There were a lot of expectations. These girls just want to keep playing. It was fun to watch two teams with kids like that,” he added with a nod toward Upper Lake's senior-dominated squad.
“I was very impressed with them,” Eltringham said of the Cougars. “I know they had a tough night, but their effort was there. It happens.”