LOWER LAKE – Clear Lake emerged as the champion of the 15th annual Record-Bee Hoop Classic because, like a good boxer, the Cardinals proved that they can punch with a left as well as a right.
The Cardinals won the deciding game in the Classic on Saturday night after their right-hand man and tourney MVP, Ryan Richardson, was all but shut down by Middletown … at least in the early stages. So, they turned to Corey Dillon, their lesser-heralded lefty, who delivered the knockout blow in an 80-68 victory over the Mustangs.
Dillon knocked down 27 points to lead the Cardinals. But he did a lot more than that. To an extent, it included taking the heat off Richardson, who, after scoring only nine points in the first half, finished the game with 26, giving him 94 points for the tournament.
“Corey tonight had his all-around best game,” Clear Lake coach Glenn Wienke agreed. “He was passing, dribbling and he made a lot of free throws.”
Dillon was 7-for-8 from the line, which, combined with a killer left-handed jumper that netted five treys, was more than the Mustangs could handle.
Middletown put up a stiff resistance until the waning minutes of the first half. The Mustangs buried four shots from beyond the perimeter and made eight of 15 shots from the floor in the first quarter to lead 23-18. But they coughed up the lead with 2:35 left in the first half when Dillon sank a pair of free throws to put the Cards up 36-35.
What happened next was a mind-blower. In an effort to throw the ball cross-court, Middletown”s Brett Humphrey inadvertently hit the rim of the Clear Lake basket. The ball bounced off the iron and then fell through the net for an own-goal two points that somehow became the beginning of the end for the ”Stangs when the Cards followed with a 14-1 run.
“That didn”t hurt us any,” insisted Mustang coach Mike Mullin. “What hurt us is what”s been hurting us all year. We”re either going to knock shots down and win games or were not going to knock them down and lose some.”
In this case they lost, because their shooting cooled. They were only two of 11 from the floor in the second quarter and 12-for-36 overall for the rest of the game.
Wienke was delighted with the first Classic triumph for the Cardinals since 2001 and saw it as a springboard into the rest of the season. With back-to-back tournament wins (Clear lake won the Potter Valley tournament the previous weekend) I think we”re going to do well,” he said.
With their 3-1 finish in the Hoop Classic, the Cards are 8-4 overall.
But he added, “Middletown gave us more game than I expected. I thought they tapped themselves out (in a hard-fought overtime win against Kelseyville a night earlier). But they proved me wrong. They played a heckuva game. Hats off to them and their coaching.”
Zach Strickler”s 22 points paced the Mustangs, Kyle Harmyk added 12 and John Hays had 11.
For the other four coaches in the tournament, it was a mixed bag. Kelseyville”s Scott Conrad, whose Knights handed Clear Lake its only loss, but missed out on a championship by losing to Upper Lake, the lowest-seeded team, was understandably disappointed.
“I think we did had a good tournament, but it”s a little bit frustrating because we were that close to winning the whole thing. We kind of gave one away (to Upper Lake) and lost a tough one to Middletown. We were that close; that”s how even everybody was around here,” he said after the Knights closed with a 50-41 victory over Lower Lake in Saturday night”s final game.
Lower Lake”s Marty Udy lamented the foul trouble that essentially took his leading scorer, David Clark, out of the equation for a second time. And Udy wrestled with the problem of accurate shooting.
Clark led the Trojans with 17 points. Wotherspoon and Steven Grossner finished in double figures for the Knights with 15 and 11 points, respectively.
“It was a long tournament for everybody,” said Conrad.
