KELSEYVILLE — In a contest Middletown led 30-29 at halftime, the Clear Lake Cardinals began to pull away midway through the third quarter en route to a 66-52 victory over the Mustangs in the junior varsity championship game of the 18th annual Record-Bee Hoop Classic on Saturday evening at Kelseyville High School.
A 13-3 surge to close out the third period proved to be the difference in the game as the Cardinals took advantage of Wyatt Hall”s absence from the floor to turn a 35-33 lead early in the quarter to a 48-36 advantage by quarter”s end.
Hall, one of Middletown”s top scorers and later named to the All-Tournament team, sat out several minutes in foul trouble, and Clear Lake took advantage. Three-pointers by tourney MVP Ootie Lane and Danny Partida fueled the 13-3 Cardinals run. David Mansell also scored seven of his 14 points in the period for Clear Lake and later joined Lane and Partida on the All-Tournament team.
Middletown was never closer than eight points in the fourth quarter. A Brandon Rannells free throw with 58.4 seconds left brought the Mustangs to within 60-52, but Middletown had to foul to keep Clear Lake from running out the clock and the Cardinals responded by hitting six free throws down the stretch.
“We finished strong, which was really nice,” Clear Lake coach Jeremy Hopkins said. “We held on to beat them the last time we played (a 60-58 win in the championship game of the Clear Lake JV Tournament on Dec. 3 in Lakeport),” Hopkins added.
While the second half was played almost entirely on Clear Lake”s terms, the first half saw 10 lead changes, including two in the final seconds of the second quarter. After Partida made two free throws to put Clear Lake on top 29-28, Middletown”s Connor Smith scored his only two points of the game to give the Mustangs the halftime lead.
Anthony Guzman of Middletown did everything he could to get the Mustangs, the three-time-defending JV champs, a fourth straight title. He finished with 25 points, nearly all of them coming in just two quarters ? a 12-point second and an 11-point fourth. He also had six 3-pointers, one shy of tying the JV single-game tournament record.
Both teams landed three players in double figures. Partida led the Cardinals with 19, Lane added 15 and Mansell had 14. For Middletown, it was Guzman, Cody Chorjel (11) and Brandon Rannells (10).
Guzman and Chorjel joined teammate Hall on the All-Tournament team.
Clear Lake and Middletown will meet two more times during their upcoming North Central League I schedule.
“It”s going to be tight every time,” Hopkins said.
Kelseyville 63, Lower Lake 51
In the third-place JV game, the Kelseyville Knights picked up their first Hoop Classic win with a victory over the Lower Lake Trojans.
All-Tournament selection James Clark scored 18 points to lead the Trojans, who stayed close until the final minute. Clark”s final two points of the game with 1:03 left pulled Lower Lake to 56-51. The Knights closed out it out with a 7-0 run, including a pair of free throws each from All-Tourney selection Dustin Martin and Victor Fernandez.
Martin finished with a game-high 21 points and Justin Johnson added 13 to lead Kelseyville. Clark and David Rank (13 points) led Lower Lake.
