WILLITS — Chris Oatman scored 11 of his 18 points in the second quarter and the Middletown Mustangs overwhelmed the Willits Wolverines 71-42 in a North Central League I North varsity boys” basketball game on Tuesday night in Willits.
Middletown (2-2, 12-8) actually trailed 17-10 after one quarter.
“They came out hot,” Middletown coach G.J. Rockwell said of the Wolverines. “They hit a bunch of 3s (3-pointers) against our zone. We switched to a man-to-man defense after that.”
With Oatman leading the way, the Mustangs outscored the Wolverines 22-11 in the second quarter to take a 32-28 lead into halftime. A 24-9 third quarter for Middletown put the game out of reach.
“The man-to-man made the difference,” Rockwell said. “The guys did really, really well and just shut them down.”
In addition to scoring a season-high number of points, Oatman had nine rebounds, four steals and a block. Bo Sheffer added 11 points, seven assists and five steals, and Nick Dellia had 12 points and 12 rebounds.
“Oatman and Dellia took control on the boards,” Rockwell said. “We didn”t give them many second shots.”
Willits fell to 2-2 in the North standings.
