WILLITS — A little bit of old and a little bit of new combined to beat the Kelseyville Knights on Tuesday in Willits.
Senior point guard Odeh Karkar scored 25 points and sophomore forward Wyatt Sanderson added 16 as the Willits Wolverines prevailed 67-63 in the North Central League I North opener for both of these varsity boys” basketball teams.
Matt Green also buried two clutch 3-pointers in the fourth quarter and Karkar added another as the Wolverines, up by as many as 11 early in the period, held off a late Kelseyville charge.
“They hit the big shots against us,” Kelseyville assistant coach Rich Facey said. “Karkar did a good job of breaking us down when we were in our man-to-man defense.”
Karkar”s slashing drives to the hoop helped Willits take a 51-47 lead into the final period.
Kelseyville was never closer than four points down the stretch, according to Facey, who said the Knights simply didn”t play good enough defense.
“We gave up to many good looks,” Facey said.
Mike Davis” 21 points paced Kelseyville”s offense. Max Huff added 16, 12 of which came in the first half, and Dustin Thaxton added 12 points, all on 3-pointers.
Kelseyville led 39-38 at halftime but struggled on offense in the third quarter.
“I think we rushed a little bit,” Facey said. “We didn”t get the ball inside enough and when we did, we got banged around and didn”t get to the free-throw line.”
There weren”t many fouls calls on either team during the game. Kelseyville went 10-for-12 from the line and Willits 4-for-5.
“They let us play,” Facey said of the officials.
Davis had the most consistent game of the Knights, according to their coach.
“He played real steady,” Facey said.
In other boys” action Tuesday:
Fort Bragg 71, Lower Lake 51
At Lower Lake, Fort Bragg went on a big run midway through the second quarter to blow open the game and beat the Lower Lake Trojans in the North opener for both teams.
“We were down by 10 points with four minutes left in the second quarter,” Lower Lake coach Marty Udy said. “From that point on it really wasn”t a contest. They really took it to us.”
Fort Bragg led 49-27 at halftime.
“We had our opportunities early on but we missed a good six layups that were uncontested that you just have to make,” Udy said.
Fort Bragg”s defense was another big factor in the outcome.
“They did a really good job of pressuring us,” Udy said. “Our turnovers were way too high. They were able to take us out of our offense.”
Cody Ryden and Matt Freitas paced the Timberwolves with 20 points apiece. Kyle Buckingham”s 13 points paced the Trojans, now 4-14. Nick Steward, Alphonsos Daniels and Scott Zandt added eight points apiece.
Cloverdale 59, Clear Lake 57
At Cloverdale, Beau Gastineau made both ends of a one-and-one with 13 seconds remaining to beat the Clear Lake Cardinals in the NCL I South opener for both teams.
Clear Lake lost one of its top scorers on the season, Kyle Donald, to a spained ankle on the opening tip-off.
“He came down wrong, landed on somebody”s foot,” Clear Lake coach Glenn Wienke said. “If we would have had him I think we would have taken it to them.”
After Gastineau hit both free throws, Clear Lake (6-10) committed a turnover in the final seconds.
“We turned over the ball at the wrong time and missed a couple of easy layups,” Wienke said.
Clear Lake used a 1-2-2 trap to keep the game close.
“Cloverdale had a hard time figuring it out,” Wienke said.
Steven Edwards” 22 points paced Clear Lake. Tanner Mansell added 13 points and Adrian Perez had 10.
St. Vincent 77, Upper Lake 33
At Upper Lake, Michael Meiswinkel”s 31 points powered the St. Vincent Mustangs past the Upper Lake Cougars in NCL I South action.
“They kicked our butts in that first quarter,” Upper Lake coach Chris Cisneros said of St. Vincent”s 28-5 lead after the opening period.
While the Cougars made 13 of 29 shots from the field, they simply didn”t have enough scoring opportunities, according to Cisneros.
“We”re going to keep playing hard,” he said.
Tyler Warren”s 12 points paced Upper Lake and Mike Sutton had 11.
