FORT BRAGG — Chasing 1,000 career points and the 2006-07 basketball season nearly spent, Lauren Nixon remains the team player she was when she first took the court for coach Jim Salmina and the Kelseyville Knights three years ago.
“She could have had 25 points tonight, but when they double-teamed her, she passed the ball to Amanda (Mueller),” Salmina said of Nixon”s team-lead 16-point effort on Friday night against the Fort Bragg Timberwolves.
The Knights not only beat Fort Bragg in the title game of the North Central League I postseason tournament, but they dominated the Timberwolves 60-37 to win their 20th game of the season, a goal that seemed pure folly back in December when Kelseyville limped out of the starting gate 1-6.
“I was just hoping to be .500 and maybe finish second or third in league,” Salmina said.
Instead, the Knights won 19 of their final 21 games, including the last 11. Their last loss came at the hands of the Timberwolves, 56-53 in overtime, way back on Jan. 16 in Fort Bragg. The two teams went on to tie for the NCL I North championship with 7-1 records, but Kelseyville made sure everyone knew who had the better team on Friday night, and on the Timberwolves” home court, according to Salmina.
“I told the kids before the game that we need to leave no doubt who the better team is and we did that,” Salmina said. “We jumped out to a 6-0 lead and they (Timberwolves) were never in the game.”
Kelseyville led 12-5 after the first quarter and had the game all but sewn up with a 32-9 halftime advantage.
Nixon, who entered play 37 points shy of 1,000 for her career, had four assists early in the game when the Timberwolves double-teamed her while leaving teammate Mueller wide open underneath the basket.
“That tells you what kind of a player she is,” Salmina said. “She”s unselfish. She just passed the ball to Amanda.”
Unselfish is a pretty good description for his team, according to Salmina, who said the “team concept” is what has carried Kelseyville to a 20-win season, with at least one more game remaining, that early next week in the opening round of the North Coast Section Division IV playoffs. Since the Knights are a league champion, they will host a first-round game unless they are paired against another league champion that is a higher seed, in which case they”ll have to travel.
“It”s also gravy from here,” Salmina said.
Twenty-points worth of gravy would suit Nixon just fine, since that”s how many more points she needs to hit the magic 1,000-point mark. The three-year varsity veteran also had 14 rebounds against the Timberwolves.
Mueller and Jodi Snider each had 13 points for Kelseyville in the win. The Knights” other three-year varsity veteran, point guard Jill Bailey, added five points, 10 rebounds, six assists and four steals.
“Our defense just shut them down,” Salmina said. “We controlled the tempo of the game. We controlled everything.”
