LOWER LAKE — The thickness of a dime separated the varsity teams competing at the 15th annual Record-Bee Hoop Classic, which ended on Saturday night at the Carl Delgado gym in Lower Lake.
Clear Lake won the title with a 3-1 record, the school”s sixth overall Hoop Classic championship in the varsity division. Kelseyville won the points-differential tiebreaker for second place by a whopping one point over Middletown. Coach Scott Conrad”s Knights had the distinction of beating the best team in the tournament — Clear Lake — and losing to the worst — Upper Lake. That 71-61 setback to Upper Lake on Monday, the first day of the round-robin competition, ultimately cost the Knights the title.
It was much more cut and dry in the junior varsity division where Middletown, despite a valiant effort by Clear Lake on Saturday, was the class of the tournament. The Mustangs not only broke the JV single-game scoring record in an 80-59 win over Kelseyville on Friday, but they ended up breaking the tournament”s JV scoring record with 269 points in four games. The old mark of 256 was held by the 2003 Middletown team, then coached by current varsity coach Mike Mullin.
It”s the second time the Middletown JVs have won the Hoop Classic title. The 2003 squad (not surprisingly) won the other.
A tournament such as the Hoop Classic is only as good as the host school that runs it and Lower Lake did another great job. Kudos to the school”s boosters, to varsity coach and athletic director Marty Udy, to shot-clock operator Larry Fanning, to timer Roberto Villalobos, and to tournament book Don Ryan. Fanning, Villalobos and Ryan worked every game — 20 to be exact.
This year”s tourney probably had the widest range of weather possible, from snow (on Monday), rain and plenty of cold, but there also were some sunny breaks.
The plan is to hold the 2009 tournament at Lower Lake”s new gym next December. Hopefully the Record-Bee will remain the sponsor for years to come (the newspaper industry is suffering mightily these days as are many other businesses). If not, the county”s schools should ban together and keep it going. It”s a worthwhile venture and a huge moneymaker. Most of all, it is still fun, 15 years later.
