The Cloverdale Eagles were crowned champions of the NCL-1 last week, closing out the league campaign with convincing wins over St. Helena and Clear Lake to secure their first basketball title in five years.
The Eagles finished up a dominant regular season with a 13-1 league record and 20-5 overall, two full games up on second-place Willits in the NCL-1 standings.
“I’ve liked all my teams but this one is very unselfish, with a lot of role players that do their job every night,” CHS veteran coach Steve Bernardi said. “We won some close games early in the season and I think these guys just figured out how to win.”
Cloverdale will quickly turn its attention to the next challenge, assuming the ninth seed in the 16-team North Coast Section Division-4 playoffs, which start this week.
At press time, the Eagles were preparing to host number eight seeded Fortuna in an opening round match-up on Wednesday, Feb. 25 (7 p.m.), with the survivor slated to play the winner of the Cardinal Newman-Roseland University Prep game on Saturday, Feb. 28 (7 p.m.).
“We’re happy to get a home game against Fortuna,” Bernardi said. “It’s a game we can win or lose, depending on how we play.”
The complete list of NCS Division-4 teams in seeding order is: Cardinal Newman (26-2), St. Patrick/St. Vincent (20-8), Salesian (18-10), St. Mary’s (15-10), Arcata (20-7), Marin Catholic (18-10), McKinleyville (17-12), Fortuna (18-9), Cloverdale (20-5), Piedmont (18-9), Lick Wilmerding (16-10), John F. Kennedy (13-12), Willits (20-6), Kelseyville (18-7), Gateway (17-9), and Roseland University Prep (20-6).
Eagles close out league
Cloverdale finished the league season just as it began in January, with a pair of impressive wins.
The Eagles enjoyed arguably their best shooting night of the campaign in the Feb. 17 home clash with St. Helena, exploding for 33 points in the second period in racing to a 52-24 lead at the half. Cloverdale got its entire bench involved after intermission in cruising to a title-clinching, 78-44 win.
“I don’t think our guys missed a shot in the second quarter,” Bernardi noted. “The whole team played well, a great team effort.”
Pacing the attack were John McMillan (21 points, 8 rebounds), Marcus Poe (20 points, 10 rebounds), Jayson McMillan (9 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists), Travis Kitowski (7 points, 2 boards), Greg Scaramella (7 points, 2 rebounds, 4 assists), Jared Hibbeln (7 points, 4 boards, 1 assist), Luke Pope (3 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal), Rudy Trevino (2 points, 1 rebound) and Michael McDermott (2 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal).
The Eagles paid Clear Lake a visit in the league finale on Feb. 19, weathering a four-point second period to forge a 23-all tie at the half. Cloverdale put the hammer down after intermission, outscoring the hosts 29-18 in the final two quarters to post a 52-41 victory.
Poe and Scaramella led the offense with 17 and 10 points respectively.
Ladies finish season strong
The Lady Eagles wrapped up a solid winter campaign in winning fashion last week, logging road and home victories over St. Helena (60-20) and Clear Lake (47-26).
The wins gave Cloverdale a final third-place league mark of 9-5, and 14-8 on the year.
The ladies made short work of host St. Helena in the Feb. 17 clash, jumping out to a comfortable lead en route to a 40-point margin of victory.
It was more of the same two nights later against visiting Clear Lake, as the Eagles raced to a 35-11 lead at the half before coasting to a 21-point win.
Top scorers for Cloverdale included Angel Bernardi (13), Teanne Edens (9), Arianna Fernandez (8) and Ale Perez (8).
