Lady Eagles beat Saints, fall to Trojans
Even at less than full strength these days, the Cloverdale High School varsity boys basketball team isn’t missing a beat and the Eagles aren’t relying on any one player to get the job done.
Cloverdale capped another solid week of basketball with a 78-46 home win over the Lower Lake Trojans on Friday night. The Eagles never looked back after Gage Hoover sank back-to-back 3-pointers to open the game. Earlier in the week Cloverdale used a big second half to rout the St. Helena Saints 70-46.
Cloverdale, now 5-1 in the North Central League I standings and tied with Kelseyville for first place, was home Tuesday to play Fort Bragg. The Eagles open the second half of their league schedule Friday at home against Clear Lake.
In varsity girls action last week, Cloverdale overcame a sluggish start against St. Helena to rout the Saints 52-22 on Jan. 19 in Cloverdale. The following night at Lower Lake the Eagles lost a 66-61 thriller to the league-leading Trojans despite a career night by junior guard Camryn Figueroa.
Varsity boys
Minus starting forward Jordan Persons (ailing back) and with head coach Steve Bernardi away on business, the Cloverdale Eagles limited the visiting Lower Lake Trojans to 14 first-half points while cruising to an easy win behind 23 points from point guard Luke Pope, who had a red-hot 17-point first half.
Assistant coach Tony Martinez filled in for Bernardi and watched the Eagles outscore the Trojans 22-8 in the first quarter. It was 39-13 by halftime as Pope scored 11 points in the second quarter alone. In fact. Pope scored Cloverdale’s first 11 points of the period as the Eagles pushed their lead to 35-10 behind a transition game that gave Trojans all sorts of fits as Lower Lake struggled to get back on defense.
Senior center Jayson McMillan took charge in the third quarter for the Eagles, scoring 12 of his 17 points in the period. The Eagles sank five 3-pointers in the quarter, two each by Pope and McMillan and another by Chavez, who finished with 14 points.
Cloverdale took a 66-35 lead into the fourth quarter as the reserves took over. Juan Martinez came off the bench to score 10 points for the Eagles.
Against St. Helena three nights earlier, Cloverdale outscored the Saints 40-20 in the second half after nursing a 30-26 lead into halftime.
Chavez led the Eagles with 19 points and McMillan added another 17.
“Our fast break was incredible and our guards did a great job running it,” Bernardi said. “Our transition game is pretty good right now and so is our defense.”
While the Saints boast the tallest frontline in the NCL I, the Eagles, even minus Persons, were able to beat St. Helena on sheer quickness.
“We trapped them pretty good,” Bernardi said. “It hurts not having him (Persons) in there because we get small without him, but we had other people step up,” Bernardi said of Chavez.
“He (Chavez) played his best game of the season,” Bernadi said. “He really got up and down the court for us.”
Persons is expected to return in a “week or so,” according to Bernardi.
Varsity girls
Figueroa went off for a season-best and career-high 37 points, including five 3-pointers, but Cloverdale couldn’t quite catch the Lower Lake Trojans, who improved to 6-0 in league play while the Eagles slipped to 3-3.
“We played one bad quarter and they made us pay,” Cloverdale coach Rick Berry said of a 21-12 Lower Lake second quarter that gave the Trojans a 33-26 halftime lead.
With Cloverdale making a serious run at Lower Lake late in the game, it was a deep 3-pointer by the Trojans’ Aleia Milano (22 points) that held the Eagles off. Vanessa Hughes sank a pair of free throws moments later to seal the victory.
“That shot (by Milano) was probably five feet behind the arc near the top of the key,” Berry said.
The Trojans connected on a dozen 3-pointers overall, including three by Claire Alderson (13 points), who had one of her better nights on offense this season, according to head coach Dave Milano.
“You have to give them credit for making that many,” Berry said of the 12 Lower Lake 3-pointers.
Lower Lake had four players score in double figures to Cloverdale’s two. Besides Figueroa, Bird had 16 points.
“You can’t play that type of defense and expect to win,” Berry said of the 66 points allowed by the Eagles.
A night earlier against St. Helena, a game that was rescheduled from Jan. 17 when the Saints’ bus broke down on the way to Cloverdale, the Eagles couldn’t do much of anything right for a quarter and a half.
Cloverdale led just 8-7 with 4:20 left in the second quarter when the switch finally flipped on. The Eagles closed the quarter with a 9-3 run to open up a 17-10 halftime advantage.
The Eagles didn’t waste time putting the game out of reach during a 27-1 third quarter. Bird scored 12 of her 15 points in the period and Figueroa scored nine of her team-leading 19.
Cloverdale nearly shut out St. Helena in the quarter but the Saints hit the second of two free throws with 2.2 seconds remaining.
The Eagles took a 44-11 lead into the fourth quarter when the reserves took over.
