KELSEYVILLE — Illness and injury took their toll on the Kelseyville Knights during the busy tournament month that is December, so much so that varsity basketball coach Scott Conrad was happy to see the New Year arrive.
But while 2009 is indeed here and 2008 is indeed gone, not much has changed for the Knights since they last took the floor on Dec. 20 against Lower Lake in the final round of the Record-Bee Hoop Classic.
“I was hoping we were done with that,” Conrad said of the bad luck that has dogged the Knights so far this season.
During a 56-47 loss to the St. Helena Saints on Wednesday night in Kelseyville, the Knights were once again missing a starter because of illness (Mike Duman), and they lost another starter late in the game because of injury — Steven Grossner rolled an ankle, aggravating an injury he sustained last month.
Grossner, who turned in one of his better efforts of the season, according to Conrad, left the game with 11 points and Conrad doesn”t know when he”ll back.
“He rolled an ankle and it didn”t look very good after the game,” Conrad said.
“Missing Mike hurt,” Conrad said. “He”s our best athlete. But Grossner really picked up the slack and did a lot of things for us tonight.”
The Knights (5-8) led 22-19 at halftime but trailed 38-34 after three quarters. The score was tied with two minutes remaining when St. Helena pushed ahead to stay.
“We stopped playing on defense, which was disappointing,” Conrad said. “All that being said, I thought we did a lot of good things tonight. I thought the kids did a good job of making that extra pass.”
Conrad said an 18-day layoff didn”t appear to hurt the Knights.
“I didn”t think we were too rusty,” Conrad said. “We didn”t shoot the ball, but we haven”t been shooting the ball all season.”
Mike Davis led a balanced Kelseyville attack with 12 points and Peter Wotherspoon and Nick Schaefer each had nine.
“The name of the game is making shots,” Conrad said. “If you don”t, it magnifies all your weaknesses. If you do, it hides them.”
Kelseyville travels to Upper Lake on Friday and is back in action again Saturday in Lakeport against Clear Lake, part of a four-game set.
