KELSEYVILLE — Earlier this season, after Kelseyville blew leads against both Middletown and Clear Lake in the Record-Bee Hoop Classic en route to a disappointing tournament, rumors were flying that the Knights were a better team than that.
Well, it turned out the rumors were true, so now it”s the Knights who are flying. Tuesday night they flew past the Mustangs, who won this season”s Classic, while soaring to commanding 5-0 mark in the North Central League I varsity boys” basketball standings. What”s more they made it look easy with a 68-58 victory and keeping Middletown at bay with a barrage of 10 3-pointers, seven of them by streaky-shooting guard Dustin Thaxton.
For Thaxton, who led Kelseyville with 28 points, it was de ja vu all over again against the Mustangs.
“He had nine 3s against Middletown in the Classic final last year (2010 tournament),” Kelseyville coach Scott Conrad hastened to point out, referring to a game that sealed the 2010 Classic title for the Knights. “He shoots like that often and he”s been due. He”s been kind of cold and we”ve been been saying for the last two or three times out it”s going to be nice when Thaxton has a breakout game.”
Nice indeed, especially when considering Thaxton led Kelseyville to its 14th victory of the season against only three losses.
Something else that made the win a celebrative one for Kelseyville was forward Max Huff”s scoring of his 1,000th career point. He reached that lofty peak on a jumper with 2:38 remaining in the first half. All the more noteworthy was that earlier in the day Huff was involved in a car accident.
“What a tough kid!” Conrad exclaimed. “He”s been dealing with a quad pull and couldn”t practice. We weren”t sure he was going to be able to play. He called me about 7:20 today and said he got hit. His mom lives in Hidden Valley and he was turning left when a car tried to pass him on the driver”s side. The doctor signed him off, but he”s pretty sore and he”s going to be sore tomorrow, but he gave a man”s effort tonight all banged up.”
Oh, man, didn”t he — racking up a double-double with 16 points and 21 rebounds (he needed eight points for 1,000 going into the game).
Wyatt Ferrell also scored in double digits with 14 as the Knights made it clear from the gitgo that they were not a team to be trifled with. When Middletown converted only two of 12 shots from the floor in the first quarter, Kelseyville was up by 15-6 and had a full head of steam. By the half the Knights were 13 points up (39-26) and at the three-quarter mark their lead had grown to 55-38.
“We talked in the locker room about how this is a big game,” said Conrad. “The whole season doesn”t ride on tonight, but it”s a big game and big players are going to make big plays.”
Luke Humphrey”s 19 points paced Middletown (3-2, 10-6) and Nick Dellia added 15.
But even though the unbeaten Knights are two games up on everybody in the league, Conrad was taking nothing for granted with more than half of the league schedule still in front of him.
“We got a lot of basketball to play in a tough league, so we”re saying as coaches do we”re going at it one at a time,” he asserted. “We got Clear Lake Friday. That”s going to be tough. They handed us our butts the last time we played them (in the Classic) and we got to do our best to get ”em back.”
Middletown coach G.J. Rockwell could only look back on the outing like a man who had just been rolled over by a semi.
“They shot the heck out of the ball,” he said. “They played well, they”re a good team.”
Is 5-0 an insurmountable lead?
“There are nine more games left,” he reasoned.
