LAKEPORT — Quick someone, call in the forensic team, because it looks suspiciously like the Kelseyville Knights have their fingerprints all over the championship trophy for the 17th annual Record-Bee Hoops Classic. Before it”s even half over!
And in dismantling host Clear Lake on Tuesday night in the manner that they did en route to a 75-47 victory, the Knights look like they may well be the “class” of the Classic, although defending champion Middletown is sure to have something to say about that. As the tournament took an off-day today, Kelseyville was 2-0 and Middletown 1-0.
Kelseyville staked itself to a 12-2 lead on Tuesday night. Clear Lake closed the gap to 12-8, but that was as close as the Cardinals ever got. The Knights” lead at the end of the first half, 35-23, gave no hint of the demolition that would be wrought in the second half. Kelseyville outscored the Cards 26-13 in the third quarter and 40-24 for the half. The Knights” biggest lead was 32 points — 72-40 — midway through the fourth quarter. Led by Max Huff”s 21, four Knights scored in double digits and nine of 10 Kelseyville players who saw action got into the scoring column as coach Scott Conrad cleared his bench.
More important than the game itself was the play of Huff, the Knights” center. Of the 21 points he scored, eight of them came on putbacks, and Conrad rested him from the middle of the third quarter on.
“Max has been a good player and he”s starting to learn how to play consistently,” Conrad asserted. “I think he”s kind of realizing what his potential could be. He sure makes it easy on our shooters. If we miss a shot, he”s going to rebound that thing.”
Conrad makes no secret of the fact that he likes this team”s potential.
“We”ve got as much depth as any team we”ve ever had, definitely,” he acknowledged. “That”s been a good thing, because we”ve been able to throw some different lineups out there.”
There was a small controversy attached to the Knights” victory apparently generated by some levity among players on the Kelseyville bench that the Cards apparently saw as ridiculing them. As the game ended, Conrad was quick to apologize to Clear Lake coach Glenn Wienke over the incident.
“We were having a good time over there,” Conrad said. “To some of their players it came across that we were laughing at their expense. That wasn”t the case at all. We were smiling and having a good time, but those kids (the Cardinals) played their hearts out. Their guards were good. They gave us fits and they kept them in the ball game. The final score got away from them a little bit. But to me that game felt a lot closer than it was.”
Tanner Mansell and Adrian Perez scored 10 points apiece for the Cardinals, now 1-1 in the tournament standings.
In early varsity action Tuesday:
Middletown 61, Upper Lake 40
Middletown scored the first eight points — six on layups by Jereomy Hoefer — and began defense of its Hoop Classic title with a victory over the Upper Lake Cougars, now 0-2 in tourney action.
The Mustangs were back at full strength with the likes of Hoefer, Chris Oatman, John-Wesley Davis, Nick Dellia and Jake Anderson — all members of the school”s varsity football team — in uniform for the first time this season. They had one full day of practice Monday before making their season debut Tuesday.
To their credit, the Cougars hung around as long as they could before Middletown”s talent and depth simply overwhelmed them. After Upper Lake”s Billy Armstrong hit a free throw to cut the Mustangs” lead to 36-27 late in the third quarter, Middletown began to open things up, increasing its lead to 13 by quarter”s end.
An 11-0 Middletown run to open the fourth quarter put the game away.
Bo Sheffer”s 15 points and Hoefer”s 10 led the Mustangs. Dellia and Oatman finished with eight apiece and Anderson had seven.
Tyler Warren”s 15 points paced the Cougars, Armstrong had 12 and Jared Wade seven.
