MIDDLETOWN >> The name of the basketball team is the Kelseyville Knights. The name of its game is winning tournaments. And so far it’s been pretty good at it, winning two of the three it has entered and coming within an overtime loss on the Monterey Peninsula of possibly making it three-for-three.
On Saturday, the Scott Conrad-coached Knights finished a 3-0 sweep at the 22nd annual Record-Bee Hoop Classic in Middletown by running past last year’s winner Middletown, 58-43. It was Kelseyville’s first Hoop Classic win since 2010 and its third Classic title overall, two of them now belonging to Conrad, who won another as Upper Lake’s head coach in 2004.
“We set goals this year to win the Stokes tournament, we wanted to win the tournament in Monterey but came up short, and we wanted to win this tournament,” said Conrad. “But we’re winning while our weaknesses have been shown to us.”
The 8-1 Knights have several factors working in their favor this season not the least of which is a solid bench backing its starters, a matter of 10 fairly equally talented players coalescing.
“I thought our depth was big tonight,” Conrad said after defeating Middletown. “We went deep into our bench. We thought we had nine kids who could start. Gideon Turner sat a lot today and came in and made some big shots for us.”
Turner came off the bench to score nine points — all on 3-pointers — to help the Knights put some distance between themselves and the Mustangs, who struck around for the better part of the first three quarters.
The final period belonged entirely to Kelseyville, which rained down a host of Turner and Kyle Ellis 3-pointers on the Mustangs to pull away.
Ellis, named the tournament’s MVP, finished with 20 points, including four treys.
Kelseyville led 14-6 after one quarter, 28-20 at halftime and 42-31 entering the final period.
One year after winning the tournament with a 3-0 record, Middletown went 0-3.
Middletown head coach G.J. Rockwell said a lack of experience hurt the Mustangs along with a lack of outside shooting. His top scorer against the Knights was Jake Rivera with 12 points, most of those coming inside the paint. No one else scored more than eight.
“When you break it down you got a senior who sat out and didn’t play last year and a senior who was hurt for two years,” said Rockwell of his roster. “We have a junior who never played. But you know what? They play hard. We just gotta fix little things.”
Even for Kelseyville — as well as the other three Lake County teams in the tournament — the Classic was a shakedown cruise that helps them mend what needs mending prior to the start of their North Central League I season.
Clear Lake 76, Lower Lake 69
Clear Lake coach Scott De Leon wasn’t disappointed with a 2-1 second-place finish after a seesaw victory over Lower Lake. The game featured big leads by both sides that dissipated in the heat of combat. The Trojans, who could have clinched second place with a win, led 22-13 at the end of the first quarter.
But by the end of the third period Clear Lake has regained control while Max De Leon, among the Cards’ leading scorers with 14 points, was being targeted by Lower Lake’s defense.
A blistering 22-point fourth quarter by the Cardinals allowed them to walk off as a winner on a night when they were red-hot from the field over the final three quarters.
“We need to shoot like that,” De Leon said. “It seems to fit our style a little bit better. Last (Thursday) night we had only 29 percent (against Middletown). I was really happy with our defense.
“Tyler Dore deserves a big fat award from this tournament. He did a fabulous job for us. Ryan Damiata got some huge rebounds for us in the third and fourth quarter. Lower Lake did their best to keep Max out of the game, but when they did that the other guys stepped up … it was a pretty balanced effort I thought. Our second-half defense made the difference.
“We’re not the biggest team, we’re not the fastest team, but if we can play good defense and shoot the ball well we’ll be contenders,” De Leon added.
De Leon and Ryan Damiata finished with 14 points apiece to lead the Cardinals. Bryce Richardson and Stevie Diaz each had 11 while Dore came off the bench to score 10.
For Lower Lake, 1-2 in this year’s Hoop Classic, Marlon Jones had his second 24-point game of the tournament to lead all scorers. Jordan McGrath helped out with 15 points and Hokulani Wickard had 13.
Jones led all varsity players during the tournament with 61 points.
