LOWER LAKE — Small things meant a lot for Middletown on Friday night in the 16th annual Record-Bee Hoop Classic at Lower Lake High School.
Little things like destiny that is obviously on the side of the Mustangs in this tournament. And heart. The M”towners showed plenty of that. And, last but not least — in fact, maybe most — the smallest player on the Middletown roster, 5-foot-8 Jereomy Hoefer.
It all added up to an incredible come-from-behind win for the Mustangs. Their 71-64 victory over Kelseyville boosted their record for the tournament to 3-0 and enabled them to continue as the only unbeaten team entering tonight”s final round.
“Incredible” is not a word to be taken lightly. And indeed the Mustangs” win wasn”t. After a slow start in which they missed their first 15 shots from the floor, they found themselves in a 16-point, 30-14, hole as intermission neared, thanks largely to a 10-0 Knight run while they were inbounding the ball eight times without a single point.
But after going into halftime trailing 38-28, Middletown came out a different team and the game became a different game.
With 3:20 left in the third quarter a shot by John-Wesley Davis tied it at 44.
Mike Mullen didn”t recall setting any miraculous strategy into place at halftime.
“I just told them, No. 1, I thought we were a little bit lazy on the defensive end and our offense was lacking and kind of lethargic,” he said. “We weren”t attacking the basket.”
For its part, Kelseyville seemed to have left its composure in the locker room. It was quite evident that the momentum had shifted as the Knights missed a series of shots, threw mindless passes and got whistled for a technical.
“We got into foul trouble basically is what happened and we had to back off,” said Rich Facey, the Knights” assistant coach who is filling in for an ill Scott Conrad. “We came out at halftime with no foul trouble and we tried to rotate to keep out of that situation. Their kids did a good job. We had them pretty much under control for a half, which was great for us, but they”re a great team.”
Hoefer, Mullen granted, led the comeback. An asthmatic, he was having difficulty catching his breath after leading the Mustangs with 18 points and a number of steals.
“He”s a hard worker — he”s got so much heart,” said Mustang captain John Hays, who dressed at the next cubicle.
Nearly as remarkable as Hoefer was Jacob Anderson, a fill-in for starter Bo Sheffer. Anderson finished with 17 points.
John Wesley-Davis led M”town on the boards with 10 rebounds to go along with his 16 points.
A fly in the Mustangs” ointment all night, Peter Wotherspoon had a game-high 21 for Kelseyville.
The Mustangs never took total command of the game until Hoefer put them up by five at 67-62. Then, an unlikely thing happened. Center Kyle Harmyk, who has had as many off- as on-nights, stole the ball and drove the court only to be fouled. A player who has had early troubles at the line, Harmyk sank both charity tosses to ice the game.
“You just never know about this game,” philosophized Mullen. “You never give up. I”ve never seen more energy than what we showed tonight. We”ve got a lot of heart.”
In the early varsity game Friday:
Clear Lake 70, Upper Lake 53
In a battle of two teams looking for their first Hoop Classic win, the Clear Lake Cardinals let the Upper Lake Cougars hang around for a half before pulling away for an easy win.
Ryan Richardson scored 32 points, including career point No. 1,000, as the defending Hoop Classic varsity champions reached the win column after one-point losses to Lower Lake on Thursday and Kelseyville on Tuesday in overtime.
Richardson, a senior, needed four points entering play to hit 1,000 and he didn”t waste any time, hitting his first two shots from the field to reach the career milestone. The second of the two baskets came with 4:59 left in the first quarter, a medium-range jumper that caught all net. The game was briefly halted so that the ball could be thrown out of play. Richardson”s feat was announced to the crowd and Clear Lake head coach Glenn Wienke congratulated him near the Clear Lake bench before play resumed.
Richardson is the first player to hit 1,000 points while competing in the Hoop Classic. He is the seventh Clear Lake player to reach 1,000 and the 36th Lake County player to do it.
In a game the Cardinals never trailed, Clear Lake opened up as much as a 12-point lead in the first quarter before the Cougars fought back. They closed to 18-13 by quarter”s end and scored the first three points of the second quarter on a Brandon Bills 3-pointer to make it 18-16. But Richardson scored eight of the game”s next 10 points to put the Cardinals up 26-18. Three of those points came at the foul line after he was fouled attempting a 3-pointer.
Upper Lake, led by six points from Tyler Warren in the quarter, worked the deficit back down to three, but two Marc Rivas free throws and another basket from Richardson, who finished the first half with 21 points, pushed Clear Lake”s lead back up to seven.
Clear Lake opened the second half with an 8-2 run and went on to outscore Upper Lake 21-12 in the third quarter for a 53-37 lead.
Tanner Mansell scored 10 of his season-high 18 points to lead the charge in the third quarter for the Cardinals.
Warren, who fouled out early in the fourth quarter, finished with 14 points to lead the Cougars. Brandon Bills added 12 points and Nick Palomo had nine.
Seth Glazier had eight points for the Cardinals.
The tournament wraps up tonight with Lower Lake vs. Upper Lake at 6 p.m. and Clear Lake vs. Middletown at 7:30 p.m.
Lower Lake, which had its tournament bye on Friday night, can clinch second place with a victory.
The awards ceremony follows the Clear Lake-Middletown varsity contest.
