LOWER LAKE >> Jermaine Watson was in the right place at the right time for the Lower Lake Trojans on Saturday night against the Kelseyville Knights during a final-round junior varsity game in the 21st annual Record-Bee Hoop Classic at Lower Lake High School.
Watson stole the inbounds pass with 5.3 seconds remaining and scored as the buzzer sounded, lifting the Trojans to an improbable 71-69 victory that proved to be the best game of the 2014 Hoop Classic, JV or varsity.
In the battle for second place in the final standings, Kelseyville appeared to have the runner-up trophy nearly in its grasp with a 69-65 lead and 30.6 seconds left. Reed Diener’s basket cut the Knights’ lead to 69-67 and the Trojans immediately fouled Kelseyville. The Knights couldn’t convert at the free-throw line, missing both ends of the double bonus, and Lower Lake called a timeout to set up a play. The Trojans pulled even at 69 on another Diener bucket with 5.3 seconds to go.
When Kelseyville brought the ball inbounds, Watson was there to intercept it and his off-balance shot sliced through the net just as the buzzer sounded, touching off a wild celebration on the Lower Lake bench while the stunned Knights looked on in disbelief.
A role player for the Trojans, Watson went on to earn the tournament’s Sixth-man award. He finished the game with 11 points, only two of which — and the biggest of which — came in the fourth quarter.
In a game of wild swings, Lower Lake led 23-14 with 1:23 left in the first quarter but didn’t score again until 2:54 remaining in the half. Sandwiched in between the Trojans’ scoring drought was a 20-0 Kelseyville run that left the Knights in front 34-23, the biggest lead either team would hold in the game.
Lower Lake then went on a run of its own and whittled that deficit down to 39-37 by halftime.
The Trojans opened up a 10-point lead late in the third quarter and took a 57-52 advantage into the final period. Momentum again shifted in the fourth quarter as Kelseyville opened up a 68-62 lead with less than a minute to play.
All-Tournament selection Marlon Jones led the Trojans with 23 points while Diener finished with 13. Watson added 11 and Jordan McGrath had 10. Nate Carpenter’s 22 points powered the Knights and earned him a spot on the All-Tournament team where he was joined by teammate Gideon Turner, who finish with eight points. Matt Wotherspoon added 10 points and Trey Conrad had nine.
Clear Lake 70
Middletown 36
Max De Leon’s 26 points, including six 3-pointers, propelled the Clear Lake Cardinals to a lopsided victory over the Middletown Mustangs and the Hoop Classic championship with a 3-0 record.
De Leon set the three-game tournament record for most points (58) and 3-pointers (12). Named the tournament MVP, the sophomore was joined on the All-Tournament team by teammates Tanner Hutton (14 points) and Ryan Damiata (11 points).
Clear Lake led 26-5 after one quarter and Middletown was never closer than 19 points the rest of the way. De Leon set the tone early, hitting the first of his half-dozen 3-pointers for the first points of the game. He connected three times from beyond the 3-point arc in the first quarter alone.
The Cardinals finished with 202 points (67.3 average) in their three wins, a tournament record.De Leon, Tanner and Damita finished one, two and four among tournament point leaders.
Ricardo Chaires led the Mustangs with nine points and was named to the All-Tournament team.
