MIDDLETOWN >> A basketball rivalry between Kelseyville and Clear Lake took a quantum leap on Friday night as the Knights defeated the Cardinals 58-51 in the second round of the 22nd annual Record Bee Hoop Classic at the Middletown High School gym.
The victory gives Kelseyville a 2-0 record going into the last round of the tournament today. Overall the Knights are 7-1. Clear Lake is 5-3 overall, two of those losses to Kelseyville.
Just as in a previous matchup in the Stokes tournament earlier this month at Kelseyville, the Knights used a balanced scoring attack to hold off the Cardinals. Kyle Ellis led the way with 14 points, nine rebounds and five assists.
And there were again overtones of an intense rivalry between the Lake County teams. Kelseyville, for certain, struck an impressive note for its early season. Head coach Scott Conrad made no secret of the fact that he is expecting this team to be a contender in the upcoming North Central League I race.
“I’m really excited about where this team can go,” he said, “because we didn’t play very well tonight. But I don’t want to take anything away from Clear Lake. They played well. You can throw talent out the window in a rivalry like this. I’m just thankful we got the win.
“We’ve had some quick starts before,” Conrad added. “I think the difference is now we don’t feel like we’re playing as well as we can. We shot the ball well, but Clear Lake did a great job tonight in exposing some of our weaknesses.”
The aforementioned intensity reached a crescendo in the last quarter when the two teams were tied three times — at 40, at 48 and at 52. The decisive basket was a 3-point shot from the left corner by Ellis, which broke the 52-52 tie. Less than three minutes remained.
With 30 seconds remaining Nick Pfann hauled in a key rebound to maintain the Knights’ seven-point edge.
“We missed some some point-blank shots. Those hurt,” said Clear Lake coach Scott De Leon, whose Cardinals have already finished second in two other tournaments this season and are looking at another runner-up finish in the Hoop Classic.
Max De Leon, son of the coach, led the Cardinals with 20 points, including six 3-pointers, and Tanner Hutton added 13.
Pfann joined teammate Ellis in double figures for the Knights with 13 points while Logan Barrick, Hunter Beatty, Trey Conrad, son of the coach, and Nate Carpenter added six apiece.
Conrad laughed when a reporter mentioned the rivalry of Kelseyville and Clear Lake.
“That rivalry is as old as forever,” he said.
In the early varsity game Friday:
Lower Lake 58, Middletown 53
The Middletown Mustangs didn’t make it easy on Lower Lake, but the Trojans rebounded from a lopsided 88-56 loss to Kelseyville during first-round action on Thursday and evened their Hoop Classic record at 1-1 behind 16 points from Jordan McGrath, one of four Lower Lake players to score in double figures.
Lower Lake led from wire to wire against Middletown, now 0-2 in the tournament standings. The Mustangs got as close as 33-31 midway through the third quarter before the Trojans answered with 9-1 run to end the period.
The Trojans pushed their lead back into double figures at the start of the fourth quarter before the Mustangs made one last-gasp run to get as close as five.
Marlon Jones finished with 13 points for Lower Lake, Jerod Alexander added 12 and Hokulani Wickard had 11. Jake Rivera’s 16 points paced the Mustangs, Trevor LaFave chipped in 13 and Sam Pyzer had eight.
Lower Lake plays Clear Lake and Middletown takes on Kelseyville today in the final round of the round-robin competition.
