Varsity boys and girls preparing for NCS playoff run
The Lady Eagles varsity basketball team captured their second league title in the past five seasons on Feb. 15, soundly defeating St. Helena, 57-30 to secure a co-championship with Clear Lake.
Cloverdale (19-6) began the final week of the season one game up on Clear Lake in the standings, but fell into a tie following a 64-49 loss on the Cardinal’s home court on Feb. 13. Both teams were victorious in their respective NCL 1 finales to finish the season tied at 12-2.
The league pennant is the first for the Eagles under veteran coach Rick Berry since the 2013-14 season.
“Winning league is always a goal for our team and the girls were set on this goal, along with winning 20 games for the season,” Berry said. “This year was a huge challenge with many good teams in league so I wasn’t sure we had enough talent, but our chemistry was right to make it interesting. We didn’t lose a home game all year and our girls played together well and were very unselfish.”
On Sunday, the Lady Eagles landed the No. 5 seed in the North Coast Section Division 5 playoffs and will open the tournament on Wednesday, Feb. 21 (after press time) against visiting No. 12 seeded Athenian in a 7 p.m. tip-off. Should the Eagles win as expected, they will move on to play the survivor of No. 4 Clear Lake versus No. 13 Redwood Christian in the quarterfinals on Feb. 24. The top four teams in the tourney will advance to the CIF Nor Cal State playoff tournament.
The Feb. 13 clash at Clear Lake began as a tight defensive struggle, with the Cardinals eking out a 21-19 edge at the half. Clear Lake busted it wide open with a 16-9 third-quarter run and powered to an eventual 64-49 win. Top scorers for Cloverdale included Camryn Figueroa (22 points), Tehya Bird (15 points), Kayli Persons (4 points), Shaye Stewart (4 points), Heather Sterling (2 points) and Maci Hernandez (2 points).
The ladies needed a win to forge a co-championship when they took the court at St. Helena on Feb. 15 and left little to chance, racing to a 33-13 halftime cushion en route to a 57-30 rout. Leading the scoring attack were Figueroa (17), Bird (14), Stewart (11), Persons (5), Cassendra Bassett (5) and Marina Lopez (5).
Boys land playoff spot
The varsity boys (18-7) also finished up a strong league campaign with an even split in their final two home games, starting with a tough 50-58 loss to Clear Lake and finishing with a 54-39 win over St. Helena. The result gave Cloverdale a final third-place league mark of 10-4.
On Sunday the Eagles landed the No. 8 seed in the NCS Division 5 playoffs and will open the tourney at home on Feb. 21 in the first game of a Cloverdale doubleheader. The boys will tip-off the action versus No. 9 seeded Head-Royce at 5:30 p.m. with the winner likely moving on to visit No. 1 seeded University on Feb. 24 (time and location TBD).
The boys were locked in a tense battle against visiting Clear Lake on Feb. 13 as the teams played to a 30-all deadlock at the half. The Cardinals took a six-point lead into the fourth quarter and held off a furious Cloverdale rally in the final minutes to escape with a 60-58 win.
Freshman Josh Lemley led the offense with 21 points, 10 rebounds and four blocked shots. Other top contributors included Jordan Persons (14 points, 4 boards, 2 assists, 2 steals), Christian Chavez (8 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal), Ross Sceales (6 points, 5 rebounds, 1 steal), Eli Arreola (4 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals), Marcos Jimenez (3 points, 2 boards, 1 assist, 1 steal) and Drew Edens (2 points, 3 rebounds).
The Eagles were back in the win column two nights later in the NCL 1 finale with visiting St. Helena, racing to a 14-2 lead after one. Cloverdale led 27-17 at the break. The Eagles maintained the advantage throughout the second half on their way to a 54-39 victory.
Persons finished up a stellar league campaign with 17 points, seven boards, five assists and one steal. Also in the scoring column were Lemley (10 points, 5 rebounds, 2 blocks), Jimenez (9 points, 6 rebounds, 1 steal), Arreola (9 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals), Sceales (4 points, 8 boards, 3 assists, 2 blocks), Chavez (3 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals) and Alex Segobiano (2 points, 6 rebounds, 1 steal).
