LOWER LAKE — When Middletown”s Jake Strickler said that he found his “rhythm” on Thursday night, Lower Lake got the blues.
Strickler”s 25 points — 21 of them in the second half — and 18 more by Brandon Breeden led the Mustangs to a 60-54 victory over the tenacious Trojans in the third round of the 13th annual Record-Bee Classic at Lower Lake gym.
Showing that same intangible that enabled them to win last year”s Classic with a different group of players, Middletown won a nip-and-tuck struggle that was too close for comfort. But then again, classic basketball battles aren”t supposed to be comfortable.
Indeed, it was a battle in which the which the lead was exchanged nine times and in which Lower Lake led by nine points in the first half and eight in the second. The Trojans led as late as midway through the fourth quarter — 50-47. Middletown didn”t grab the lead for the final time until the final two minutes. A pair of free throws by Strickler at that point put Middletown up by 54-52. Seconds later, Strickler hit a 3-pointer to make it 57-52 and Lower Lake couldn”t respond.
To their credit, the Mustangs won despite a couple of adverse turns. Their starting point guard, Kelly McKinley, quit the team following Middletown”s opening-round victory over Kelseyville. And on Thursday night, team leader Tyler Hunt fouled out in the crucial final two moments after being bottled up and held to only four points.
“He wasn”t into it,” Middletown coach Mike Mullen said of McKinely. “We had a long talk. He said he wanted to get ready for baseball.”
Additionally, the Mustangs also found Lower Lake to be all that they could handle in notching their 12th straight over Lake County teams over the last two years. Middletown trailed 30-25 at the half.
A 12-2 run by Middletown during which it connected on six of eight shots, including five in a row, was key to the Mustangs” success. Strickler keyed the run with six points.
“It was a very good test. Lower Lake is a very good team. They”re very well coached. Playing in this gym is always worth at least 10 points to them,” Mullen said.
During the halftime intermission, Mullen said he told his charges they needed to make sure they get back on defense.
“We had an little bit of trouble with the transition and they were getting a couple of fast breaks.”
The Middletown coach praised the offensive work of Strickler and Breeden and added that Strickler “did a great job on defense.”
“I think we did it on the defensive end,” Mullen added. “We tried to contest the 3-pointers because they”re a good three-point shooting team (Lower Lake had seven treys to Middletown”s three). In that respect, the whole team did a great job on defense.”
The win, while giving Middletown a 2-0 mark in the Classic, evened its early-season record at 4-4, while Lower Lake fell to 1-2 in the tourney and 3-7 overall.
Clear Lake 83, Upper Lake 40
In the early varsity game on Thursday, the Clear Lake Cardinals could do no wrong and the Upper Lake Cougars no right in third-round action at the Lower Lake gym.
Clear Lake came out of the starting gate smoking and had a 19-0 lead before Jayce Meri finally scored Upper Lake”s first points on a driving layup with 2:42 left in the opening quarter.
Adept ballhandling, crisp passing and a red-hot touch from the field propelled the Cardinals to their second win in as many Hoop Classic games.
“We”ve been real up and down with our ballhandling and our outside shooting and tonight we had both things going real well.”
Make that real, REAL well.
The Cardinals hit their first three shots from the field, including a three-point play by Brandon White and a 3-pointer by Jameson Holder, to go up 8-0 almost before the Cougars had shed their warm-up clothes.
Armando Martinez added two more baskets, including a driving layup through the heart of the key, then Holder came up with a steal and motored down the floor for another layup to make it 14-0.
After White connected on a jumper, Holder bombed in his second 3-pointer of the quarter to push Clear Lake”s advantage to 19-0.
No sooner had Meri scored for Upper Lake than Holder scored, drew a foul on the play and hit the free throw to make it 22-2 with 2:07 still left on the first-quarter clock.
Holder finished with a team-high 20 points, joining teammates White (14 points) and Martinez (11 points) in double figures. Kory Hook added eight points and Rawley Butler had seven.
Clear Lake was a blistering 34-for-65 (52 percent) from the field compared to 18-for-60 (30 percent) for the Cougars.
Max Curtis” 11 points paced the Cougars, Kyle Coleman added 10 and Jacob Widener finished with nine.
