Benefield: Cloverdale High School girls relish home playoff game vs. Urban

So tough was the North Central League I this season that the Cloverdale Eagles finished behind both Middletown and Kelseyville but still secured the No. 2 seed in the North Coast Section Division 5 girls basketball tournament.

And with that seed, the Eagles earned a home game in tonight’s semifinal against the Blues of Urban High School of San Francisco, co-champs of the Bay Counties-West League.

If the Blues want to make it to the final on Saturday, they have to beat the Eagles at home. That’s no easy task. The Eagles are 11-2 at home.

“You can’t ask for better,” Cloverdale’s longtime head coach Rick Berry said. “For us it was a great seed. We’re honored to be a No. 2 seed. We play better at home.”

Tonight’s contest promises to be a good one.

The Eagles and the Blues of Urban have four common opponents this season but not a ton of intel can be gleaned from the results.

Cloverdale lost at home to Middletown early in the season, 43-32, and lost again on the road, 38-37 on Feb. 4. The last contest on Feb. 20 saw Cloverdale beat a short-handed Mustangs squad 42-29 in the postseason tournament. When the Blues played Middletown, they won 46-37.

Both squads beat The Branson School (Ross) - Cloverdale by a score of 56-20 and Urban 50-27.

Against The Bay School of San Francisco, Urban lost a defensive battle 34-26 while Cloverdale beat Bay in a less-than-typical offensive explosion, winning 73-57. Both squads beat The College Preparatroy School (Oakland); Urban won 48-22, while the contest with Cloverdale was much closer, with the Eagles winning 46-42.

Where one can see a difference between the two teams is in size.

Urban is a mite bigger than Cloverdale, whose tallest player is 5-foot-6 all-arounder Angel Bernardi.

The Blues start 6-2 senior center Iona Tangri. But Berry had special praise for Urban senior Kira Waldman, a 5-9 team captain who could pose a matchup problem for the Eagles.

“She’s a beast,” Berry said.

“I think they are a very good team,” he said. “I’m looking forward to playing someone new, someone with a very good record.”

Berry feels good about his crew, though. It’s a squad that’s been through the grinder of the NCL I and a group that, without fail, plays smart, he said.

“It wasn’t like we could just show up. We had to play well to win,” he said. “The league was a very, very tough road for us. We had to execute to win.”

That’s where having a two-year starter at point guard helps.

Senior Bailey Stewart is averaging just four points per game in the postseason but is the brains of the Eagles operation. It makes sense, she’s got a 4.3 grade-point average and is the top of her class, according to Berry.

“She plays within herself,” he said. “She’s smart that way, she understands her role.”

Cloverdale is averaging 50 points per game this season, while allowing 38.

“Our team defense is probably our key,” Berry said. “We are not an offensive juggernaut by any means.”

But senior Bernardi, all 5 feet, 6 inches of her, can be an offensive power at times. She is averaging a team-high 18 points in the postseason.

Berry said Bernardi is a hard one to define. She’s not necessarily a sharpshooter, but she’s not a board banger, either. She just gets it done, Berry said.

“She works hard for every one of her points,” he said.

She has to - Bernardi is usually tasked with going up against the biggest of Cloverdale’s foes.

“She plays bigger than she is,” Berry said. “She has gone up against six-footers all year and held her own.”

Berry praised his senior-heavy squad - he starts all five seniors on the nine-player roster - for playing with a maturity beyond their years.

“Hardly ever do you have five senior starters,” he said. “You don’t want the season to end - their work ethic, and they are just great people to be around.”

Whichever way tonight’s game goes, the Cloverdale Eagles have played their way into the NorCals so the Eagles’ season goes on.

You can reach staff columnist Kerry Benefield at 526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com, on Twitter @benefield and on Instagram at kerry.benefield. Podcasting on iTunes “Overtime with Kerry Benefield.”