KELSEYVILLE >> It will come down to a showdown. That’s the way Kelseyville High School coach Scott Conrad envisions the final week of the North Central League I and the determination of who plays in the North Coast Section Division IV tournament that follows.
After his Knights defeated Lower Lake 61-55 on Friday night in the Kelseyville gym, Conrad, unlike other coaches in the NCL I, said he believes that only two teams from the league will be seeded into the Division IV field.
One of those seeds, quite naturally, will be awarded to Cloverdale, the anticipated league champion with a 10-1 record entering Friday’s action against Fort Bragg and two games remaining next week.
“I don’t think our league’s going to get three teams in,” said Conrad. “I really don’t. It’s that tough. That makes our Tuesday game with Willits a showdown. And we want to pack this place (the Kelseyville gym).”
Kelseyville will take an 8-4 record into the Tuesday game by virtue of its Friday night win. Willits, which defeated St. Helena on Friday, the last-place team in the league, stands at 9-3. Thus, a victory over the Wolverines would boost the Knights into a tie for second with both teams having one league game to go.
Conrad and his Knights barely had time to savor their victory over Lower Lake, which was accomplished mostly through the leadership of Brandon Huber, who led Kelseyville scoring with 24 points and included five conversions from beyond the 3-point arc. Thirteen of Huber’s 24 were scored in the fourth quarter when the Knights were finishing off Lower Lake.
“Twenty-four! Wow! I didn’t realize that,” Conrad exclaimed. “That’s an impressive 24. He’s having a good year. He’s an unselfish kid who made a lot of good plays tonight. I don’t know what his shot line was tonight, but he’s one of our unsung guys.
“We talked in the locker room about getting guys to step up,” Conrad added. “Huber stepped up and so did our sophomore, Kyle Ellis, who had a lot of key rebounds.”
Lower Lake’s freshman phenomenon Hokalani Wickard led the Trojans in scoring with 18 points. Lower Lake trailed through the last three quarters of the game, getting as close as four points. But the Knights were never headed.
Conrad called it a ”ragged game” and said the Knights missed their point guard, Nick Pfann, who injured a hand last week and is probably through for the season.
“We could have used him a couple of times,” Conrad said. “We did just enough to win, but we’ll take it. We just have to play them one at a time and see what happens.”
