MIDDLETOWN — The Middletown Mustangs closed out an improbable week by doing the impossible Friday night, defeating Kelseyville 55-54 on John-Wesley Davis” baseline shot from directly beneath the basket with a scant 3.3 seconds remaining.
The clutch victory moved Middletown (4-2, 15-9) into a first-place tie with Fort Bragg (4-2) atop the North Central League I North standings. It followed a win over league-leading Fort Bragg on Tuesday night. If Middletown wins its final two games against Lower Lake and Willits it can do no worse than a tie for the league championship.
“Our kids battled and played hard and Middletown deserves a lot of credit,” said Kelseyville coach Scott Conrad, who was coaching his first game after a 10-game absence due to illness. “It was a physical game and I thought our kids matched their physicality.
“John-Wesley Davis got loose on the baseline, we contested it pretty good but he made it anyway,” Conrad added of the winning shot.
Davis” clincher came at a moment that was made all the more intense by a packed Middletown gym that kept the place referred to as “The Barn” at a deafening decibel level throughout the game. Most of the noise came from a section jammed with Middletown students who continuously roared “MIDDLETOWN!” As indeed it should have been given the game”s consequences, the loss all but eliminating Kelseyville from the North title hunt.
“It feels really good ? it was huge,” Davis said while describing his winning shot in the locker room following the game. “That cheering section was amazing. I give it credit for five to 10 missed free throws a game. For sure it inspired me. All those people, it was so loud, which brings up your intensity.”
Davis, the star of the Mustangs” win over Fort Bragg on Tuesday, in no way resembled the player who scored 20 points against the Timberwolves.
In fact, he had only four points before delivering the decisive shot and did not distinguish himself by missing a pair of free throws in the hectic final two minutes.
For a fleeting moment, the Mustangs looked like sure losers when the Knights, leading 54-53, wrestled the ball away after Middletown inbounded it with 23.7 seconds remaining. But Kelseyville was called for traveling, giving the Mustangs the ball out of bounds with 12 seconds to go. At that moment, Middletown coach G.J. Rockwell called a timeout and gathered his entire team at the Middletown end of the court to set up a final shot.
Rockwell invoked the name of Bill Foltmer, the school”s longtime varsity football coach, in explaining what went on.
“Foltmer told me you have to answer for everything,” Rockwell said. “There was a play called but the kids made it happen.”
It was a game with more twists and turns than a slalom run down Mount Whitney. First because Kelseyville held a 15-1 lead before Chris Oatman made the first Middletown field goal. By the end of the quarter it was 16-5 Kelseyville. But, implausibly, the Mustangs led at halftime 26-22, courtesy of a 14-3 second-quarter run while outscoring the Knights 21-6 for the period. Another run of seven put the hosts up 38-34 at the third-quarter mark.
But a Mike Davis putback of a missed Wyatt Ferrell free throw gave Kelseyville the lead once more at 49-48 and the Knights increased their edge to 54-49 with 2:07 left.
Then, with 1:30 remaining, Middletown took command, scoring the game”s last six points on a field goal by Bo Sheffer, another by Nick Dellia to make it 54-53, and Davis” clincher in the final seconds.
“Kelseyville played an incredible game ? they played their butts off,” said Rockwell.
Sheffer led the Mustangs with 16 points and Mike Davis” 17 points paced Kelseyville. Max Huff added 13.
Next for the Mustangs? “We”ve got to go back to work Monday and then we have Lower Lake. They got us last time. We”ve got to be ready,” said Rockwell.
