The record for the Lower Lake basketball team the last few years hasn’t been very good.
That is saying it nicely.
It has been so down the last few seasons, that is some of the seasons they didn’t finish the results on the Max Preps page. The results that are there aren’t pretty. Over the last five seasons they have an over record of 32-87 and its league record is 14-47.
This has been a comeback season for the program under first year head coach Shannon Tubbs. At No. 9, Lower Lake started the week with its first appearance ever in the YSN365.com rankings. They end it in sole possession of first place in the NCL I race.
On Friday Night they raised their record to 11-7 overall and 7-1 in league with a 56-54 overtime win over Middletown. Hokulani Wickard hit a three with :32 left in regulation to force OT and then Ethan Watson hit a three with 1:15 left in the extra session to make it 55-49 and the Trojans held on.
Wickard, who is sophomore, scored a game high 18. That is one point off his season high and raised his season average to just fewer than 12 a game. Watson, who is averaging 7.5 a game is a junior.
Lower Lake hasn’t finished over .500 overall or in league play since 2005.
You need a strong heart to be a Lower Lake fan. They have won five straight with two of them in Overtime another a two point win over Kelseyville
Speaking of Kelseyville, they are one of the reasons Lower Lake is in sole possession of first place. Kyle Ellis scored a season high 23 points as they won a thriller over No. 5 Fort Bragg 56-53. It was a long week for Fort Bragg, who started it in sole possession of first place. On Wednesday they lost to Cloverdale, and Friday Night they dropped into a second place tie with Kelseyville and Cloverdale.
On the other hand it was a good week for Cloverdale who got 27 from Jayson McMillan as they held off Clear Lake 65-57.
To sum things up Lower Lake has a one game lead over Cloverdale, Fort Bragg and Kelseyville who are all tied for second.
With the changes this week, more will be in store. On Tuesday Cloverdale goes to Kelseyville and on Thursday Fort Bragg goes to Lower Lake.
There weren’t any major shakeups in the league races on Friday. The league overview will come with the Girls and Boys rankings as the weekend goes on.
My email address is jacpasquini@comcast.net