RedHawks let lead slip away against Live Oak

One strong quarter was all Live Oak High's girls basketball team needed to upset Colusa on Thursday in Colusa.

The RedHawks led by 16 with just over four minutes remaining in the third quarter, but nine minutes later Amyah Clark swished a three-pointer to give the Lions a 47-46 lead with 3:15 left in the game. Live Oak finished the game on a 24-4 run.

During the final 12 minutes of the game, Live Oak out-rebounded Colusa 22-9 and stole the ball five times.

Colusa shot 41 percent during the first three quarters, but was just 2-of-13 from the field in the fourth quarter and missed all four free throws, including the front end of two one-and-ones.

"We were making good passes and executing our plays, we just kind of stalled a little bit in the second half there and didn't score," Colusa coach Jerry Davies said. "We didn't execute when we should have, games turn around on you when your offense stalls a little bit."

Paulina Heredia began the Lions' run by scoring two points in the paint and drew a foul, though she missed the free throw, and out-hustled the RedHawks down the stretch with four steals and five rebounds. Heredia finished the game with 12 points, nine rebounds and four steals.

Colusa struggled to stop Clark, Live Oak's dynamic senior forward, late in the game after containing her for the better part of three quarters. Clark scored nine points and grabbed seven rebounds during the Lions' rally. She finished with 18 points, 14 rebounds and two steals.

Anijah Clark scored 13 points but did most of her damage in the first half.

"We know they go to the rim a lot real hard and can rebound off their misses so we tried to put as many people in front of them as we could," Davies said. "But they did a good job especially in the open court, they pushed the ball hard."

Before the fourth quarter collapse, the RedHawks were in control of the game. Colusa's guards provided most of the scoring output in the first quarter. Yasmin Moreno scored five points and Mattie Myers added four to guide the RedHawks to an early 15-9 lead.

The second quarter belonged to Katie Mobley, who scored 10 points and Colusa went into halftime up 30-23.

Emily Mobley opened the second half with a put-back and converted on back-to-back three-point plays. She scored Colusa's first 10 points of the third quarter and outscored Live Oak 10-5.

Katie Mobley added a short bucket and Paige Townzen made two free throws to extend the RedHawks lead to 44-28 with 4:15 remaining in the third quarter — from that point on it was all Live Oak.

Several RedHawks players got into foul trouble in the fourth quarter. Emily Mobley fouled out with 1:55 remaining, Mattie Myers fouled out with 34 seconds on the clock and Katie Mobley sat on the bench for stretches of the fourth quarter with four fouls.

Live Oak wasn't immune to the foul bug either, as Amyah Clark fouled out with 48 seconds left.

Katie Mobley finished the game with 16 points, eight rebounds and a block, Emily Mobley scored 11 points and commanded 10 rebounds. Cheyenne Rogers grabbed 11 rebounds, made two steals and scored two points. Myers and Townzen scored six points each, and Moreno added seven.

Colusa (14-4, 2-2 Sacramento Valley League) fell to fourth place in the league and Live Oak (13-5, 3-1 SVL) moved into third. The RedHawks travel to Weaverville Saturday to play Trinity.

CONTACT Kirk Barron at 458-2121 or kbarron@tcnpress.com.