ST. HELENA — So much for working out the kinks.
The Middletown Mustangs had four players score in double figures and two others finish with eight points Thursday night while routing John Swett 76-42 in the opening round of the St. Helena Tournament at St. Helena.
The varsity boys” basketball tournament runs through Saturday and Middletown will play Roseland Prep tonight at 7 p.m. in a winner”s semifinal game.
“They looked all right,” Middletown coach G.J. Rockwell said of his team”s season opener. “Like everybody else our timing is off right now.”
Nine players reached the scoring column for the Mustangs, who emptied their bench early on against John Swett. Middletown (1-0) led 33-16 at halftime and 55-30 after three quarters.
“The bench played most of the game,” Rockwell said.
Luke Humphrey led Middletown with 15 points, Blaine Amos added 13, Nate Snodgrass had 12 and Tanner Alves 10. Tyler Rockwell and Scott Velarde finished with eight points apiece.
“Luke Humphrey did real well both on offense and defense,” Rockwell said. “Amos and (Nick) Dellia did a good job inside.”
In girls” basketball action Thursday:
Dixon 39, Clear Lake 35
At Colusa, a five-point lead turned in a five-point deficit within a short span in the fourth quarter and the Clear Lake High School varsity girls” basketball team fell to Dixon in the opening round of the Colusa Tournament.
Dixon took a 22-21 lead into the final period before Clear Lake pushed ahead by five points. The Rams then hit their first three 3-pointers of the game — one each by three different players — to push ahead to stay.
“We did have a shot and we put ourselves in a good position in the fourth quarter, but they got hot at the right time,” Clear Lake coach Kory Reynolds said.
Clear Lake held up pretty well against Dixon”s man-to-man pressure defense, according to Reynolds.
“We were playing pretty well and we did a really good job breaking the press,” he said. “We had a few too many turnovers, but we did a pretty good job.”
Kelsie Reynolds and Jessica Asbury scored eight points apiece to pace Clear Lake, which plays in the consolation semifinals today at 3 p.m.
“We took away a couple of good things from this game and one of them is we”re really playing like a team,” Reynolds said.
While it was Clear Lake”s season opener, Dixon improved to 2-0.
“They”re one of the top teams at the tournament,” Reynolds said. “They had a really good team last year and they”re a little bit down this year, but they”re still pretty good.”
Roseland Prep 51, Upper Lake 32
At Upper Lake, Roseland Prep raced out to a 16-5 lead in the first quarter and never looked back against Upper Lake in a first-round game at the Lady Cougar Classic.
“We started out sluggish,” Upper Lake coach Mike Smith said. “They came out in man-to-man and kind of put us back on our heels.”
While Upper Lake (1-1) tried to cut into Roseland Prep”s lead, Smith said the Cougars couldn”t take advantage of the opportunities that presented themselves, especially at the free-throw line where the Cougars were just 4-for-22.
“And they had some shooters who stroked some big 3s,” he added of Roseland Prep.
Kat Edmonds” 14 points paced the Cougars and Kelsey Pearl had six.
Smith had high praise for the play of Amber McQueen.
“She had the intensity you want the whole game and kind of kept us going when we were mentally down,” Smith said.
Upper Lake plays Potter Valley tonight at 8 p.m.
JV girls
Kelseyville 33, Upper Lake 25
At Upper Lake, Amanda Ahart”s double-double of 15 points and 10 rebounds propelled Kelseyville to a win over host Upper Lake in the opening round of the round-robin Lady Cougar Classic.
Ashley Dunia added 12 points and Rayona Jamison pulled down eight rebounds for Kelseyville.
Kelseyville plays Fort Bragg today at 3:30 p.m. Upper Lake and Fort Bragg follow at 5 p.m.
