LOWER LAKE >> Middletown was the last team standing in the 21st annual Record-Bee Hoop Classic although standing is a questionable word when describing what will be remembered as a jumbled mass of bodies diving for loose balls, scrambling for rebounds and launching a few shots that didn’t quite make it to the rim.
The Mustangs emerged from the chaos pitting four of the five Lake County high schools with their third Hoop Classic championship in the last four years. It was not necessarily because they were the best team as much as they were the best at asserting their will and dictating how the games would be played which at times was erratic, at other times brilliant and at still others confusing.
Case in point was the Saturday night victory over defending champion Clear Lake. Middletown opened its final game of a three-game sweep with a first quarter that began with 15 turnovers — seven by the Mustangs who got their first two points on a shot by Jovon Self more than midway through the quarter.
The Cardinals led throughout the first half by as many as seven points (27-20) just before the buzzer.
But in the second half, the Mustangs straightened up their act, played air-tight defense and controlled the backboards and outscoring the Cards 6-1 down the stretch. Middletown’s ball-hawking guards — Self and Anthonie Guzman — led the charge; Guzman, by forcing turnovers in hand-to-hand combat, Self by converting the passes Anthonie airmailed to him.
The climactic shot — Cody Corjel’s high-arcing shot from the baseline with 1:34 left — sealed the Mustang win.
“We played good enough to win the game and get out of here,” Mustang coach G.J. Rockwell said in a sigh-of-relief postgame statement. “We’re playing hard. I ‘m happy about that. We got a bunch of hardworking kids and they’ll give us a chance to win. That’s where we’re at.”
Clear Lake coach Scott De Leon took his team’s 0-3 tournament record in stride.
“We competed,” he said. “We played our butts off. I can’t say anything negative about our effort. It’s tough to come in here as defending champs and not win a game. We were in all our games, but we did not shoot the ball particularly well for the entire tournament.
“I was pleased with our defense and with our effort. We battled to the buzzer in all three games,” he added. “These kids have heart.”
Chorjel led Middletown with 16 points and was named the tournament MVP, joining teammates Self and Guzman on the All-Tourney squad. Jared Strate led the Cardinals with 16 points and also earned All-Tourney honors.
Kelseyville 71
Lower Lake 53
At the opposite extreme — not pleased with his team’s effort — was Lower Lake coach Tim Biasotti.
Sounded out as to why the door to the Trojans’ locker room remained closed long after their decisive loss to Kelseyville, Biasotti asserted, “We had a long talk about what we’re doing. It was disappointing. I feel like the product we put out didn’t reflect the work we put in. I almost feel like I owe people an apology because the product that we put out wasn’t a product that represented us well.”
The Trojans’ utter collapse in Saturday night’s second half of the first varsity game, with second place in the tournament standings riding on the line, was a hard pill to swallow.
Regarded as a possible Hoop Classic champion prior to the start of the tournament, Lower Lake trailed 30-29 when the second half began only to get blitzed 41-24 in the second half by the Knights, including a 25-11 third quarter that featured a 19-1 Kelseyville run carrying into the final period.
“I 100 percent agree that we did not look like the team we sent out the first night (of the Classic),” Biasotti responded to a reporter’s suggestion. “Whether we win or lose we fight until the final buzzer.”
Kelseyville’s Scott Conrad, the dean of Lake County coaches, waxed philosophical after his team’s explosion.
“There are four good teams in this county, I think four good styles,” he said. “I think our league’s going to be the same I don’t think anybody in our league can’t be beat. And I don’t think anybody’s going to show up and get an easy win.”
Conrad agreed that his Knights probably had the best shot at beating Middletown, that chance coming in first-round action on Thursday, a game the Knights lost 46-39.
“I think the first thing we need to do is dictate the style of the game,” he said. “The second thing is to be realistic we didn’t play well at all (against Middletown). We really didn’t do what we wanted to do. We like to play up-tempo. Middletown didn’t let us do that. We’ve got a ways to go to be the team we want to be.
“I’ll be honest with you. We had a goal to win this tournament,” Conrad added.
Brandon Huber’s 19 points led a Kelseyville offense that had four players score in double figures. Hunter Beatty added 16 points while Nick Pfann and Victor Fernandez finished with 10 apiece.
Dustin Martin’s 19 points paced the Trojans and freshman Damian Wickard added 15. Martin and Wickard joined Kelseyville’s Pfann, Huber and Kyle Ellis on the All-Tournament team.
Now that the page has been turned on the 2014 Classic and the four county teams get ready to enter North Central League I play, what can be learned from it?
Said Rockwell: “After watching this weekend, I think on any given night in this league anybody can beat anybody. Every team’s ready.”
