LOWER LAKE — One night after beating St. Helena for their first win of the season, the Kelseyville Knights nearly made it two in a row before losing in the final seconds, 46-44, to the Lower Lake Trojans in North Central League I varsity girls basketball action in Lower Lake.

Lower Lake's Margo Cordova scored on a driving layup to snap a 44-44 tie.

"Margo played a great game," Lower Lake head coach Shannon Tubbs said of his senior point guard, who began her drive to the basket with five seconds remaining. "The ball hung on the rim for a second, rolled around and by the time it fell in there was less than a second left."

Cordova's game-winning shot gave her a team-leading 20 points on the night.

"She was attacking the basket a lot tonight and she stayed out of foul trouble," Tubbs said. "When she gets in foul trouble it changes the whole dynamic for us. She didn't have any fouls tonight."

While Kelseyville entered play with just one win on the season, Tubbs said you never would have known it based on the Knights' performance.

"They never gave up, they flat out played hard and gave us everything we wanted," he said. "It was one of those game where they scored and then we scored, they scored twice and then we scored twice, it kept going back and forth. We were never separated by much."

"This was probably our best game," Kelseyville head coach Bonnie Thomasson said. "We were passing real well and doing all the things we needed to do."

And one of those things was making their free throws. The Knights (1-5 league, 1-12 overall) went 10-for-14 from the line, led by Larue Furlani (7-for-8), who led all scorers with 27 points. Lilly Wiser added nine points and Emily Sandoval had five points and a team-best 10 assists.

"She had a lot of good assists getting the ball inside to Larue," Thomasson said of Sandoval.

Kelseyville suited up only six players and finished the game with five after losing Makayla Meyer to fouls. The Knights led 21-19 at halftime and went to the fourth quarter down 33-31.

"It was back and forth the entire game," Thomasson said.

Kelseyville's foul trouble helped set up Lower Lake's game-winning play, according to Tubbs, who said the Trojans (3-4, 5-10) were in the double bonus.

"I knew they didn't want to foul us and send us to the line, so I told my girls that whoever had the ball, attack the basket. We were looking for a foul or a layup on that last play and Margo came through," Tubbs said.

Tiahna Tubbs joined Cordova in double digits for the Trojans with 13 points while Kyleigh Mock added nine points. Tubbs also had a team-best five steals and the defensive pressure she applied caused the Knights problems throughout the game.

Also for Lower Lake, center Terilyn Jo Jermany pulled down eight rebounds to go along with four points.

Kelseyville stays on the road to play Middletown on Wednesday, Clear Lake on Friday and Willits on Sunday.before returning home Feb. 8 against Cloverdale. Lower Lake travels to Fort Bragg on Friday.

There was no junior varsity game.

In other girls action Tuesday:

Upper Lake 2, RCP 0 (forfeit)

At Upper Lake, Roseland College Prep showed up to Upper Lake's gym nearly 45 minutes late and forfeited its NCL II game with the league-leading Cougars (7-0, 15-2) although the two teams did play a pair of 20-minute halves with a running clock just so the night wasn't a total loss.

Upper Lake's Zoey Petrie concentrates at the free-throw line Tuesday night during the Cougars' league win over Roseland Collegiate Prep. RCP forfeited the game after showing up 45 minutes late to the Upper Lake gym, but the teams did play two 20-minute halves with a running clock to get some work in. (Photo by Brian Sumpter)

With the Upper Lake-RCP varsity boys game scheduled to tip off at 7 p.m., the Cougars waited as long as they could before the varsity girls contest was declared a forfeit.

Upper Lake head coach Mike Smith started his reserves against RCP once the two teams finally took the floor. It was competitive until Upper Lake's starters subbed in midway through the first 20-minute half, at which point the Cougars scored at will until the reserves returned to the floor. It ended up being 40-21 on the scoreboard in Upper Lake's favor at the conclusion of the second 20-minute half.

Smith said it was just a little more weirdness during a fragmented 2021-22 season during which the Cougars went an entire month without playing a game between the end of winter break coupled with three weeks of postponements caused by COVID-19 outbreaks.

The Cougars' next two games, both of the non-league variety, take place in Santa Rosa. They visit Roseland University Prep on Friday and Piner on Monday. Their next scheduled NCL II game is Feb. 8 at Tomales.