UPPER LAKE — The Kelseyville Knights doubled their pleasure on Friday night at the Winter Classic boys” basketball tournament in Upper Lake.
Kelseyville beat College Prep 65-55 early in the afternoon and came back a few hours later to defeat South Fork 59-44, running the Knights” record to 6-1. They play Upper Lake today at 3 p.m. in the final round of the tournament, which they”ve already won.
A deep bench served Kelseyville and coach Scott Conrad well in light of the twi-night doubleheader.
“We went nine deep in the first half of both games and that allowed us to keep some fresh legs out on the court,” Conrad said.
The Knights sustained a fair number of bumps and bruises against College Prep in their first game of the day.
“They had some size, but it was more like long and lanky size, so we took a lot of knees and elbows ? we had some bruises that”s for sure,” Conrad said.
College Prep took a 19-17 lead into the second quarter when an early four-point play by Mark MacDonald turned the momentum in Kelseyville”s favor.
“It was the spark we needed,” Conrad said of a 21-12 Kelseyville scoring surge in the period.
Dustin Thaxton and Wyatt Ferrell led a well-balanced Kelseyville attack with 14 points apiece, Max Huff added 12 while MacDonald and Devon Call had eight apiece.
In the win over South Fork, the Knights again trailed after the opening period — 15-10 — but came out shooting in the second period to take control of the game. Kelseyville outscored South Fork 22-7 to go up 32-22 by halftime.
“We had five 3s in the quarter,” Conrad said. “Thaxton had two and Devo (Call) three.”
Kelseyville ended up hitting 11 3-pointers in the game, including five by Thaxton (17 points) and four by Call (14 points).
Huff joined his teammates in double figures with 15 points and he also pulled down 15 rebounds. Call had eight rebounds while Oscar Lopez added 10 rebounds, seven assists and three points.
“We were pretty banged up from the College Prep game and South Fork was good ? they”ve got size and they”re fast,” Conrad said. “We needed to be tough and we were tough.”
Solid play off the bench from Call, James Green and John Mark Reagan greatly aided the Knights in both games, according to Conrad.
“It”s nice to have so many weapons,” Conrad said.
Anderson Valley defeated Upper Lake in the other varsity game. Results were not reported to the Record-Bee. Upper Lake is 1-3 on the season.
Kelseyville”s JV boys” squad beat College Prep on Friday (see story on Page A9).
In other boys” tournament action Friday:
REIBT
Amador 62, Lower Lake 34
At Healdsburg, the Lower Lake Trojans played a solid first quarter before losing their shooting touch in a loss to Amador in the consolation semifinal round of the Redwood Empire Invitational Basketball Tournament.
“We were there in the beginning and I felt real good,” Lower Lake coach David Graham said of the 12-10 lead Lower Lake held after one quarter.
The Trojans couldn”t buy a basket after that, according to Graham.
“In the second quarter we kept missing layup after layup ? I stopped counting after 16 missed layups and missed 2-footers.”
Jesse Meldrum”s 11 points paced the Trojans (0-6) and Alphonzos Daniels had 10.
“I hope all of this is getting us ready for league,” Graham said of Lower Lake”s slow start this season.
Lower Lake plays El Molino for seventh place today.
Middletown 46, El Molino 39
At Healdsburg, Luke Humphrey”s 16 points powered the Middletown Mustangs to a win over El Molino in the consolation semifinals. The Mustangs (3-2) play Amador today at 1:30 p.m. in the consolation championship game.
The game wasn”t as close as the final score indicates because the Mustangs, leading 35-18 after three quarters, gave ground in the fourth quarter with their reserves on the floor most of the period.
Middletown snapped a two-game losing streak with its victory.
Nick Dellia and Tyler Rockwell had six points apiece for Middletown and Blaine Amos had five.
Dellia scored 22 points on Thursday in an opening-round 74-52 setback to Marin Catholic of Kentfield. DJ Brookshire added eight points and Tanner Alves had six.
Potter Valley Tourney
Clear Lake def. Archbishop Hanna (forfeit)
At Potter Valley, Archbishop Hanna of Sonoma failed to show up Friday night at the Potter Valley Tournament and forfeited to the Clear Lake Cardinals in the round-robin competition.
Clear Lake (3-0) will play Mendocino tonight in the championship game at 7:30 p.m.
“They said they would show up,” Clear Lake coach Glenn Wienke joked.
Archbishop Hanna apparently thought the game against Clear Lake was on Saturday morning, according to Wienke.
Mendocino defeated St. Bernard on Friday.
