LOWER LAKE — Kelseyville erased a 14-point deficit in the fourth quarter to send the game into overtime, but John Hays and Zach Strickler wouldn”t be denied in the extra period as the Middletown Mustangs beat the Knights 63-56 in the early varsity game Friday at the 15th annual Record-Bee Hoop Classic in Lower Lake.
It was the most exciting game of the tournament to date and one that left Middletown, now 2-1 in the varsity standings, still alive in the chase for the championship. In order to win their third Hoop Classic title, two things need to happen for the Mustangs. They need to beat a 2-1 Clear Lake team tonight and they need Kelseyville to knock off Lower Lake in the other varsity game. The Cardinals can win it all by beating Middletown, regardless of the outcome of the Lower Lake-Kelseyville game.
Neither Middletown coach Mike Mullin or his Kelseyville counterpart, Scott Conrad, were thinking about titles on Friday night. They were just thinking about survival at different points in their game.
The Mustangs seemingly had the game wrapped up with a 44-30 lead early in the fourth quarter, but the Knights, unable to generate much offense all night, finally began to hit some shots. First one, then another and before you knew it, it was a game again. Kelseyville pressured Middletown in the backcourt to great effect down the stretch, forcing numerous turnovers that led to baskets.
“We haven”t seen much pressure this year and we don”t have a lot of ballhandlers to begin with,” Mullin said. “Our best is John Hays, and they were double- and triple-teaming him. They just did a good job.”
Ahead 48-46 with 33.4 seconds left, the Mustangs had a chance to add to their lead at the free-throw line, but Kyle Harmyk missed the front end of a one-and-one. After an exchange of possessions that didn”t result in any points, Kelseyville had 18.7 seconds left to tie the game. The Knights were patient, worked for a good shot and got it by feeding the ball down low to Mike Duman, whose basket with 3.2 seconds left sent the game into overtime.
Middletown missed a long 3-pointer as the buzzer sounded.
In the overtime, the Mustangs went ahead to stay when Hays (16 points) pulled up for a baseline 3-pointer and nailed it for a 51-48 lead.
Dustin Peterson drove inside for a layup to make it 53-48 and Strickler took it from there, scoring the Mustangs” next six points.
Kelseyville got as close as 59-56 when Hipolito Perez buried a 3-pointer with 50.7 seconds left, but free throws by brothers Johnny and Kyle Harmyk and another Strickler bucket put the game out of reach.
Strickler went 3-for-3 from the field and 2-for-4 from the line in the overtime period, part of his 15-point night overall.
“You can”t fault the effort,” Conrad said of his players. “The kids left everything they had out on the court. I”m as proud of them tonight as I was last night (73-57 win over Clear Lake).”
Kelseyville shot just 22 percent from the field in the first three quarters, then recovered to hit 10 of 20 shots in the fourth quarter, with several players getting hot all at once, including seven points by Nick Schaefer and six by Duman in the period.
“It”s a hard thing to snatch it back out of nowhere,” Conrad said of his team”s hot shooting in the fourth quarter, “but that”s what we did.
“I told them during a timeout that you have to be a little arrogant when you”re shooting. You have to believe you”re going to make it,” Conrad added.
Middletown”s defense made the Knights work hard most of the game and Mullin said that”s not really a surprise.
“Defense has been keeping us in games all season except Healdsburg,” he said. “Where we”ve been struggling is on offense ? our shooters have been lacking confidence. I think we found a little in this game.
Johnny Harmyk had 15 points and Peterson 14 for the Mustangs. Peter Wotherspoon led Kelseyville with 13 points and Duman had 12.
Clear Lake 76, Upper Lake 53
From the start Friday night, Upper Lake was up the proverbial creek against the Cardinals of Clear Lake and their superior-shooting playmaker Ryan Richardson.
The turning point in the Cards” 76-53 waltz in the 15th annual Record-Bee Classic came when they removed their warm-up jerseys.
In a game that the Cards led from their first field goal by Richardson at the three-minute mark to the brutal finish, there were no surprises, least of all Richardson”s game-high 25 points, upping his total for the tournament to 68 points.
“It came out pretty even,” joshed Clear Lake coach Glenn Wienke, alluding to the slow start. “We came out of the first three minutes zero-zero.”
The romp gave Clear Lake a 2-1 record for the tournament to match Lower Lake and Middletown, putting the Cards in a position to win their first Classic since 2001.
Upper Lake was still in the game at the half when it trailed only 34-26. But things deteriorated quickly after that. Clear Lake buried the Cougars in the third quarter, outscoring them 24-6.
Upper Lake didn”t start out to commendably, converting only three of 16 field goal attempts in the first quarter and only nine of 31 in the half. But the second half was strictly a laugher.
“This is the worst we”ve played all week and you can”t win games that way,” acknowledged Upper Lake coach Forrest Stogner, whose Cougars finished the tournament with a 1-3 mark. “We need the time off … badly.”
The Cougars did manage to acquit themselves reasonably from the perimeter with seven treys — four of them by Dillon Gonzales, Upper Lake”s top scorer with 14.
Conversely, if the Cards” game against Middletown is decided at the free-throw line, they could be in for trouble. They made only seven of 15 Friday night.
“I”m just hoping that Middletown left it on the boards,” said Wienke, alluding to the Mustangs” hard-won overtime victory against Kelseyville Friday night.
Does Wienke think that his team is in the driver”s seat?
“You can never say that,” he replied. “One game you”re up and the next game you”re down. It could be anybody”s tournament right now.”
