KELSEYVILLE — Every coach in the “dogfight,” otherwise known as the North Central League I varsity boys” basketball race, will tell you that it”s a wide-open affair. That may be a fair assessment, but time keeps marching on and so do the league-leading Kelseyville Knights, who Friday night scored a convincing 56-38 victory over Willits.
The win boosted the Knights” record to 7-1 in league and 15-4 overall with six games remaining.
If time is not necessarily on Kelseyville”s side, Max Huff is. That may be quite enough. In yet another superb performance, Huff led the Knights in scoring and on the boards — with 18 points and 13 rebounds — and just about everything else. Particularly compelling were a steal and a stop-me-if-you-can slam dunk with 1:25 remaining in the third quarter, and an above-the-rim follow for two more points with two minutes left in the game.
Huff got a well-earned ovation when he retired from the game a minute later.
They don”t call him “Max” for nothing. The man takes it to the “max” in everything he does. He is, quite simply, don”t-bother-with-the-vote, just-give-him-the-MVP-award-for-this-season good. Further, it was clear Friday night that he is fully recovered from a quad injury that had slowed him for the past few games
“It really hurt him for a while and during that time he was about 80 percent and he”s finally starting to feel better,” said Kelseyville coach Scott Conrad, who, ironically, was using a crutch and was admittedly in pain, the result of arthroscopic surgery on his knee on Monday.
Conrad agrees that Huff could play any position. “He”s very difficult to defend 10 feet from the basket becasue he”s fast enough to go by those big kids, and he can shoot that mid-range jumper.”
Conrad readily acknowledged that Huff is the best rebounder in the league. “I think so,” he said. “It hurt us when he wasn”t able to be super active.”
Although he didn”t say so, the victory had to be a satisfying one for Conrad, whose brother Tim is the Willits coach.
The Wolverines managed to stay in the game for only the first quarter, from which Kelseyville took a 13-11 lead. Willits shooting guard Max Green gave the Knights something to think about during the period by sinking three 3-pointers. But Green was not to be heard from again. Nor were the rest of the Wolverines, who were down 26-17 at the half. That margin expanded to 15 points by the end of the third quarter.
Sharp-eyed guard Dustin Thaxton aided in building the Knights” advantage with 12 points, including four 3-pointers.
“It was far from just Max tonight … we held them to 38 points. That”s a real great team effort defensively,” Conrad intoned.
For a brief spell this past week there were hints that Kelseyville had developed a crack in its armor. That was after a tenuous escape from last-place Lower Lake.
“I don”t know what it was,” said Conrad, “but yesterday they came to practice very focused. We were uptight a little bit when we put ourselves in that positon of being in first place and knowing teams are going to come and take their best shot at us. But I think the kids did a good job of relaxing and just going out and having fun tonight.”
Tim Conrad, who is forced to start three sophomores and a junior, saw his team”s NCL I mark slip to 3-5. Green and John Montez managed to get into double digits with 11 and 12, respectively.
“Normally we shoot a little bettet than we did tonight,” he said. But what troubled the Wolverines most were numerous steals. “There were a lot of silly passes; I thought they were unforced to be honest with you.”
Scott Conrad, meantime, was treating his team”s first-place standing like a gambler holding four aces.
“There”s a long way to go and we undestand that four teams are still in the mix,” he said, “but I wouldn”t want to be anywhere else.”
