LAKEPORT ? Thrilling would be a word to cover Lower Lake”s taut 42-40 victory over a good Kelseyville team in the decisive game of the 14th annual Record-Bee Hoop Classic in Clear Lake High School”s gym on Friday night. Too thrilling, when it didn”t need to be, was Trojan coach Marty Udy”s size-up.
Even with the championship for this year”s tournament fully secured and a 3-0 record for the Classic going into tonight”s final game against Middletown, Udy was not too thrilled with how the victory was accomplished.
“I”m just disappointed that midpoint fourth quarter, we”re up (by) nine, with the ball. You”d like to think that you”re going to able to take the game home and do the right thing,” said Udy.
The Lower Lake coach was disappointed by the way the Trojans responded when the Knights “manned up” late in the fourth quarter after playing a zone defense until then.
“We forced it at times when we didn”t have to I thought,” said Udy. “We put ourselves in poor position and turned the ball over at inopportune times. Throw a technical into that, it gives them a chance to get back in the game.”
The technical was whistled against a Lower Lake player, said a game official, because of disrespect. And although the Knights” Isaac McQueen missed both free throws, the Knights pulled to within a single point at 41-40 when Mike Duman, at the charity stripe because of the personal foul on Lower Lake that prompted the alleged disrespect, hit a free throw.
And for a critical moment with only 54 seconds left in the game the Trojans seemed to have lost their composure. They lost possession when team leader Kevin Freeman was called for an offensive foul. But McQueen missed the shot that would have put the Knights in front, a position they had enjoyed only once — and then only briefly, 14-12, in the second quarter — the entire game.
Lower Lake inbounded the ball after McQueen”s miss with 29.8 seconds left and managed to hang onto the ball, their composure and the lead. A free throw by A.J. Harris after an intentional foul by the Knights” Matt Jones sealed the deal.
Udy”s dim view of the way the Trojans had to hang on to win was undoubtedly fueled by an earlier game against Clear Lake in the Classic in which they led by 20 in the second half but barely escaped with the win.
“We talked about holding a big lead and not putting yourself in a position where you have to hold off,” Udy said following Friday night”s game in which the Trojans were up 39-30 with six minutes left to play.
From a pure basketball point of view, both sides played less than artistically, which is usually the case with defensive struggles.
Kelseyville coach Scott Conrad was disappointed that the Knights made only 16 of 38 shots.
“I”m proud of my guys. I thought they played their guts out,” said Conrad, “but we missed a ton of good shots. We played well and took the good shots and they didn”t go down.
“We can”t seem to get the side rims in our gym fixed, so it”s kind of hard to get practice shots up. I wouldn”t mind you quoting me on that,” he added.
The Knights were relatively successful in boxing out Freeman, who had made 20 and 21 points in Lower Lake”s two previous tournament wins, but only 11 on Friday night.
“Our big guys were defending him so well. We played the man pretty well and we played the zone pretty well, which was doing a good job of taking Freeman away.” Conrad said.
But point-making is only a segment of Freeman”s ominous presence on the court.
“We put him at different places,” said Udy. “He played the wing, he played the high post. He”s the guy who makes our offense click. In the second half we kept the lead because of Kevin. He played the baseline and spread the defense out a little bit more. And that opened it up for some other guys.”
Cameron Dudding, who had 10 points for Lower Lake, was one of them. David Clark, with 8, was another.
“He (Feeman) really was the spark for us and got us going in the second half,” Udy concluded.
The game”s leading scorer was Kelseville”s Peter Wotherspoon with 12.
Although the Trojans still have a game against Middletown in the final round of the Classic tonight, they are officially the Classic champions by virtue of wins over Clear Lake and Kelseyville, both 2-1. The title is the Trojans” fifth, tying them with Clear Lake for the most championships.
Middletown 69, Upper Lake 63
You might be able to slow him down some, but you can”t stop Middletown”s Tyler Hunt.
Hunt, a 6-foot-5 senior forward for the Mustangs, scored 33 points ? four shy of the Hoop Classic”s single-game record ? to lead his team past the Upper Lake Cougars in the early varsity game on Friday night at the Clear Lake High School gym.
Middletown improved to 1-2 in the tournament standings while Upper Lake fell to 0-4.
“There”s not a lot of coaching there,” Middletown coach Mike Mullin said of his three-year varsity veteran. “He just does it on his own. He”s tough.”
Coming off a 31-point effort the night before in an 87-83 overtime loss to Clear Lake, Hunt pretty much scored at will against the Cougars, who played their best game of the tournament only to come away with nothing to show it. He had 15 points by halftime but it was his 10 points in the fourth quarter that held off repeated Upper Lake charges.
“He can pretty much do it all,” Mullin said. “He can handle the ball, rebound, play defense, shoot from all over the court.”
Is there anything he can”t do?
“I don”t know,” Mullin said of Hunt, who went on to win the 3-point shooting contest following the game.
Upper Lake fell behind 17-2 midway through the first quarter and spent the rest of the night chasing the Mustangs. The Cougars got as close as two points three different times in the second quarter before Middletown pushed out to a 35-29 halftime lead.
Hunt scored late in the third quarter to give the Mustangs an eight-point cushion, but back came the Cougars on a 3-pointer by Kyle Coleman and two Dillon Gonzales free throws to make it 46-43. Hunt sank two free throws in the final seconds of the period to give Middletown a 48-43 lead.
After a three-point play by Hunt to open the fourth quarter moved the Mustangs back on top by eight at 51-43, the Cougars went on a 9-2 run — getting a pair of 3-pointers from Gonzales and another trey from Jayce Meri — to close to 53-52.
But that”s when Hunt asserted took control of the game yet again. He scored the next five points to make it 58-52 and after Brandon Mendoza”s basket for Upper Lake, Middletown”s John Hays buried a clutch 3-pointer to make it 61-54. The Cougars were never closer than five points the rest of the way.
Middletown entered the game minus starter Dustin Peterson, who was absent for disciplinary reasons, leaving Middletown with only seven players in uniform. As a result, Hunt never came out of the game.
“We were going to bring him out but when Dylan Galusha (Hunt”s backup) picked up his third foul, we pulled Dylan out and left Tyler in there,” Mullin said.
Brandon Mendoza”s 18 points led the Cougars. The junior guard played his best game of the tournament — in fact, it was the best game by any Upper Lake player during this year”s Classic. In the second quarter alone, Mendoza scored 13 points, including a four-point play. He was fouled while making a 3-pointer and he added the free throw.
Sam Fiddler added 14 points for Middletown and Johnny Harmyk had 10. For Upper Lake, Coleman finished with 13 points and Meri had 10.
The Hoop Classic wraps up tonight with varsity games between Middletown and Lower Lake at 6 p.m. and Clear Lake and Kelseyville 7:30 p.m. The awards ceremony follows the final game.
