MIDDLETOWN — G.J. Rockwell lives by the maxim “one game at a time” so intensely that he refused to consider that his Middletown Mustangs need only to defeat ultra-defeatable Willits in their final regular-season game on Friday night in Middletown to clinch no worse than a co-championship in the North Central League I North varsity boys” basketball race.
A victory over Willits assures the Mustangs (5-2, 16-9) of no worse than a share of first and perhaps the undisptued championship if Kelseyville (4-3) wins Friday night at Fort Bragg (5-2).
“I got an e-mail from (Middletown athletic director Geri Giovannetti) that read, “In the event of a tie (with Fort Bragg) for the title … ?and I wrote back I”m not going to finish reading this because we got two more games to go,” ” said Rockwell.
One of those games the Mustangs took care of on Tuesday, cruising to a 63-35 victory over an outmanned Lower Lake squad on the Middletown floor.
Still, the Mustangs were less than impressive — in the first quarter, anyway — when they scored only nine points. Fortunately for them, the Trojans scored ony three. They led 22-10 by half before a 41-point second half made the lethargic start a dead issue.
But slow starts have been a quirk of these Mustangs — raising the question of whether Rockwell”s maxim should be “three-quarters of a game at a time.”
“We”re spotting teams 15 points in the first quarter — they were down 15-1 before beating Kelseyville in the last three seconds last Friday,” said Rockwell. “I feel like saying, ?Why don”t we just start the game in the second quarter down 15-0?” I tell them ?One of these days it will come back to get you if you continue to put yourself in a hole. You”re not going to climb out of it.” “
Once the Mustang offense kicked in on Tuesday night, Lower Lake”s aspirations of repeating an earlier overtime upset of the Mustangs (on Jan. 28 in Lower Lake) were smashed, totaled, irreparable.
Point guard Luke Humphrey”s 20-point game that included four 3-point field goals keyed the Mustangs. Joe Taylor”s 18 points paced the Trojans, who close out their North schedule at 2-6 while falling to 6-19 overall.
“Luke was really big for us because he opened up our offense when they were really packing their defense and our big guys could hone in,” said Rockwell. Most especially, it opened the way for Bo Sheffer, who had 12 points, nine assists and four steals. Nick Dellia had a seven-point third quarter to help the Mustangs mount a 40-24 lead at the three-quarter mark and Jake Anderson had an eight-point fourth quarter.
“The guys are obvioiusly a lot more focused,” Rockwell added. “Everything”s on the line for us in evey game, so they have to come to play every night and everybody”s got to give their best game to us. They know what”s on the line. Like I told them before the game, we have everything to lose.”
They”ve got to face each challenge three-quarters of game at a time.
