KELSEYVILLE — Kelseyville”s Knights never saw it coming on Thursday night. But then given the way the first-round game matching Kelseyville with Middletown in the 18th annual Record-Bee Hoop Classic began, no one would have guessed.
The game had all the makings of a “classic,” pitting the defending champion Knights against the tournament champions of 2009. Kelseyville brought a 7-1 record into the game while Middletown, last season”s North Central League I North co-champion, entered play at 3-3.
So, who would have guessed the game would wind up as a 68-43 rout with the Mustangs on the long end?
This was after the two teams played it fairly close, exchanging the first-half lead three times and the Mustangs up 30-24 at the intermission.
That was as close as it would ever be as Middletown outscored the Knights 20-8 to take a 50-32 lead at the three-quarter mark. Middletown senior point guard Luke Humphrey put his stamp on the quarter by scoring 12 of his game-leading 26 points.
“They operated well together,” Middletown coach G.J. Rockwell said of the Mustang effort. “They”re very unselfish, they share the basketball and they just hustled and worked very hard tonight.”
The victory improved Middletown”s record to 4-3. They take on Lower Lake in a second-round game tonight at 6:30 p.m.
Depending on how Kelseyville fares tonight in the late varsity game against Clear Lake, a winner over Lower Lake on Thursday, Middletown and Clear Lake could be headed for a showdown in Saturday”s final game of the Classic.
In addition to Humphrey, the Mustangs got excellent play from sophomore Nathan Snodgrass, who scored 12 points and was the only other player in double digits for Middletown.
“He played for us this summer and he really did a good job,” Rockwell said. “He was a yeoman down there tonight, a hard worker.”
Oscar Lopez led the Knights with 15 points and Max Huff had eight.
“We couldn”t get anything going tonight,” Kelseyville coach Scott Conrad said. “And they just kicked our butts in that second half.”
Clear Lake 86, Lower Lake 67
In the early varsity game Thursday night, senior guard Kyle Donald scored 32 points, including an 11-of-14 performance from the field with three 3-pointers, and the Clear Lake Cardinals broke open a competitive game with a late surge in the third quarter to beat the Lower Lake Trojans.
Donald had 20 points by halftime although the Cardinals, who had three starters with three or more fouls by the intermission, couldn”t shake the Trojans until the final minutes of the third quarter.
After Jeff Davis scored for Lower Lake to make it 57-51, Clear Lake went on a 10-2 run in the final 2:25 of the period to open up a 67-53 lead. Adrian Perez opened the Clear Lake scoring surge with a three-point play, Andrew Jackson stole the ball and scored on a layup, center Gabe Strong pounded his way inside for two points with a nice assist from guard Steve Edwards, and Strong scored again with 28 seconds left, drew a foul on the play and hit the free throw.
Lower Lake used a mini 7-2 run in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter to get as close as 71-60, but Clear Lake scored 12 of the next 14 points, leading both Clear Lake coach Glenn Wienke and Lower Lake coach David Graham to empty their benches.
Clear Lake shot a blistering 30-for-52 (58 percent) from the field and also outscored Lower Lake 23-13 at the free-throw line.
Joining Donald in double figures for Clear Lake were Edwards with 18 points, Adrian Perez with 14 and Strong with 10.
Alphonzos Daniels” 15 points, 12 of those coming in the second quarter, led the Trojans. Jeff Davis added 14 points and Jesse Meldrum had 10, but both players fouled out early in the fourth quarter. Zane Kazaka had eight points for the Trojans, now 0-8 on the season.
Clear Lake takes a 5-0 record into tonight”s late varsity game against Kelseyville (7-2). Lower Lake and Middletown meet in the early game.
