It will be David versus Goliath when the No. 16 seeded Cloverdale Lady Eagles visit top seeded juggernaut Marin Catholic when the teams meet on Feb. 16 (after press time) in the opening round of the North Coast Section basketball playoffs.
The Eagles (9-15) squeaked into the 16-team Division 4 bracket by the narrowest of margins, and will need to pull off the mother of all upsets to advance in the tournament.
“We’re happy to have the opportunity to suit up one more time, especially for my seniors,” CHS coach Mac Butler reported. “As far as our seeding, I think it was fair, but we’re in a higher division (D-4) then I feel we belong. Due to our playoff wins in 2018-2020, the NCS moves teams up and down to provide competitive balance.”
Strong league finish
Cloverdale closed out the NCL1 regular season in winning fashion, posting victories in two of their last three games.
The Eagles made short work of visiting Kelseyville to start the stretch on Feb. 8, busting open a tight ballgame with a strong late surge. Cloverdale clung to a four-point halftime advantage and led 45-36 after three before closing it out on a 27-8 fourth-quarter run en route to a 72-44 romp.
Sophomore Tylie Hatcher lit it up for a team-high 33 points. Other top scorers were freshman Amara Galvan (13 points), senior Aaliyah Reyes (8 points), junior Alexis Gutierrez (5 points), junior Teyla Caturegli (5 points), senior Summer Lands (3 points), sophomore Brianna McNulty (3 points) and junior Trinity Vlasak (2 points).
The Feb. 10 visit to Clear Lake was a close battle that had a controversial ending. The teams played on even terms most of the way, and Cloverdale knotted the contest at 43-all with eight seconds remaining to set up an unlikely finish. With time winding down, a Cardinals’ drive was batted out of bounds and the clock was reset to 0.3 seconds. Clear Lake’s Montana Wells’ shot seemed to be after the buzzer sounded, but the referees aloud it to count as the Cardinals escaped with a 45-43 win.
Lands led the Eagles with 14 points. Also in the scoring column were Hatcher (11 points), Galvan (10 points), Zoe Katz (3 points), Gutierrez (2 points) and McNulty (2 points).
Cloverdale closed out the league schedule on Feb. 12 on Senior Night, honoring Lands, Reyes and Katz in a pre-game ceremony. The game that followed went down to the wire as the Eagles pulled out a 42-39 victory.
Lands turned in a great game with a game-high 18 points.
