MIDDLETOWN — Middletown”s Mustangs played their “A-game” for one stirring third quarter Friday night. But other than that, it was pretty much all ZZZs — as in sleep — for the south countians.
The consequence was a 48-37 loss to Willits, the Mustangs” first in North Central League I North play. A side effect was Middletown fell from its perch from atop the North standings.
With the win, the Wolverines (3-1, 12-9) took over the top rung.
Willits closed out the Mustangs on the strength of a fourth quarter that it clearly owned. Willits outscored the Mustangs 17-6 in the period after the two teams ended the third quarter tied at 31.
The game”s momentum turned on a conversion from the perimeter from Odeh Karkar, who led all scorers with 17 points. Coming during a 6-0 fourth-quarter run by the visitors, Karkar”s shot made it 38-33, which in a low scoring game as this one was devastating.
“Karkar hit that 3 with our best player — (Tim) Compton — on the bench with foul trouble (four fouls),” said Willits coach Duane Nelson, formerly the head coach at Upper Lake. “Karkar picked us up. He”s a junior and he played great tonight. We”ve played great defense all year.”
A putback by aptly named Jed Sleeper was also pivotal, expanding a 40-37 Wolverine lead to five points with 69 seconds remaining.
The Mustangs started dismally, missing 14 of their first 17 shots and were 6-for-28 from the floor for the first half. Despite sleepwalking their way through the first two quarters, they somehow managed to be in arrears by only 22-16 at intermission. They had a strong awakening in the third quarter, outscoring Willits 15-9 and leading the game briefly in the final two and a half minutes. But the Wolverines lullabyed them back to slumber with tenacious defense in the telltale fourth.
The game ended in “garbage time” with Willits scoring the last 10 points while turning a 42-37 lead into a, well, yawner.
“They were a little more aggressive than us,” Middletown coach Mike Mullin said. “We didn”t shoot well, we had no hustle in the first half.”
However, Mullin, who saw his team miss a chance to go over .500 for the season (the Mustangs are 9-10 overall) was conceding nothing.
“We”re 2-1 (in league). We”re still up there,” he said. “We”re OK. We”ve got five more league games to go. We had two good games in a row, this was a sluggish one.”
Nelson, meanwhile, was cautious.
“It ain”t over. Everybody could beat anybody. It could be a 5-3 record will win this thing,” Nelson said.
Jereomy Hoefer led the Mustangs with 10 points and Bo Sheffer had nine.
