MIDDLETOWN >> Winning in the postseason hasn’t been as easy task for Middletown High School’s girls’ basketball team or Lake County schools in general the last few years, but the Mustangs made it look easy on Wednesday night with a 59-43 victory over the Fortuna Huskies in the opening round of the North Coast Section Division IV playoffs at Middletown.
Until Wednesday night when both the Middletown and Kelseyville girls (co-North Central League I champions) won in the first round, a Lake County team hadn’t prevailed in the playoffs since 2005. In fact, no Division IV team had won since 2003 and no girls’ team since 2002 (when Middletown last did it in Division V).
As Middletown coach Anthony Bazzano put it after the school’s first win in the Division IV playoffs, “We got off to a really good start. We were crisp offensively. We were not able to put them away, but they never got back into the game either,” Bazzano added. “We confused them a little bit with what we were doing defensively.”
Middletown forced Fortuna into three quick turnovers in the first quarter while building a 10-2 lead that would be 22-10 by quarter’s end. The Mustangs maintained a double-digit lead the rest of the way and when Meghan Carlisle buried a 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter and Abby Aden added a layup moments later, the Mustangs had a 15-point cushion.
Other factors that made the win a little sweeter were:
— Junior guard Makenzi Smith led the team with 18 points, including four first-half 3-pointers, and finished with a double-double after pulling down 10 rebounds.
— Senior center Ashlyn Welton had a monster game with 17 points, 14 rebounds, six steals and five blocks. She is the first player in Middletown history and only the eighth in county history to top 1,300 career points (1,312). She’s also within four rebounds of reaching 1,000 for her career, according to Bazzano.
— This year’s Mustang girls added d a 23rd win to their school record total for victories.
Carlisle scored all eight of her points in the second half to give the Mustangs a lift. Aden also finished with eight points.
Middletown’s next task is an even bigger one as the Mustangs visit Santa Rosa on Saturday night to take on No. 2 seed Cardinal Newman (24-4).
“The mountain gets bigger for us but we’ll try to shock the world,” Bazzano said. “These kids don’t get intimidated by anybody and I can guarantee you we’ll play 32 minutes of basketball.”
Added Bazzano of his team’s playoff win, “We built ourselves a nice little lead in the first half. I’m happy with the flow of the game. It’s been a long time since somebody around here has done this, but the competition is going to get tougher.”
But for right now, the Mustangs are certainly savoring the victory.
