KELSEYVILLE >> This home cooking stuff has worked out pretty well for the Kelseyville Knights.
Making the most of a three-game homestand to open their North Central League I varsity boys basketball schedule in 2018, the Knights defeated the Middletown Mustangs 63-41 on Tuesday night to move into sole possession of first place in the standings.
Less than two weeks into the league season, Kelseyville (3-0, 12-3) is the only remaining undefeated team following Clear Lake’s 71-42 victory over previously undefeated Lower Lake on Tuesday night in Lakeport.
“I don’t think G.J. (Rockwell, the Middleotwn coach) or myself were happy with the way our teams played tonight,” Kelseyville coach Scott Conrad said. “I think the difference tonight was that they (Mustangs) did not keep us off the offensive boards like they usually do and we were able to take advantage of that.”
Balanced scoring was a big help too as the Knights nearly had all of their starters in double figures. Jon Vanderwall led the way with 14 points, Randy Pfann added 12 despite a sore hamstring, Trey Conrad and Kyle Ashworth, who was making his first start of the season, added 10 apiece, and Scott Sanchez had nine.
Only Luke Holt (13 points) cracked double figures for Middletown (1-2, 8-6). Trey O’Neill and Andres Cervantes added eight each.
Robert Chavez buried a 3-pointer for his only points of the game late in the first half to give the Knights a 32-22 halftime lead.
“That was a pretty big shot,” Conrad said.
Kelseyville opened it up in the third quarter by outscoring Middletown 23-12.
Conrad said it was a game-time decision to play Pfann, who hurt his hamstring during a Monday practice.
“He gutted it out and played pretty well,” Conrad said. “I was able to sit him down in the fourth quarter because we had a pretty nice lead.”
Middletown won the junior varsity game 39-36. Will Chastain’s 14 points paced Middletown. Rafael Perez led Kelseyville with nine points and Tyler Linnell had eight.
In other boys basketball action Tuesday:
Clear Lake 71, Lower Lake 42
At Lakeport, Tanner Hutton needed 36 points to reach 1,000 for his career and that’s exactly the number of points he finished with as the Clear Lake Cardinals handed the Lower Lake Trojans their first league loss.
Both teams are now 2-1 in the league standings.
Clear Lake coach Scott De Leon said he had no intention of running up the score against Lower Lake but that he wanted to give Hutton, a senior, every opportunity to score his 1,000th career point in front of Clear Lake’s fans, who showed up in big numbers to root him on.
“With our next two games away, I wanted to give him a chance to do it in front of the home crowd,” De Leon said.
Hutton scored 20 points in the first half as Clear Lake built a 40-22 lead. He reached 1,000 with just less than four minutes to play in the fourth quarter, hitting a corner 3-pointer, his seventh trey of the night, for career points Nos. 998, 999 and 1,000.
“It was all net,” De Leon said. “The crowd could see it coming and they were all cheering. It was a pretty shot.”
Hutton hit all 11 of his free throws in the first half and finished the game with nine rebounds, four of them offensive.
“He was an absolute beast,” De Leon said.
The game was briefly stopped after Hutton scored his 1,000th point so that he could celebrate the moment with teammates and coaches.
“We made a presentation,” De Leon said.
“I’m really happy for Tanner,” Lower Lake coach Tim Biasotti said. “He’s worked hard for this and put in his time.”
Lucas Stahr also turned in a solid effort for the Cardinals with eight points and 12 rebounds.
Izzac Carver’s 25 points led the Trojans, who were without Hokulani Wickard (excused absence) for a second game in a row. Elijah Hernandez added eight points.
Clear Lake is 8-7 overall and Lower Lake 6-9.
Clear Lake also won the JV game 59-28 behind 16 points from Darius Ford and 11 from Joey Mendonca.
Upper Lake 62, Credo 27
At Rohnert Park, 12 Upper Lake players suited up and all 12 scored in a NCL II win over Credo.
“It was good to get everybody in and get everybody a lot of minutes,” Upper Lake coach Justin Dutcher said.
The game might have been even more lopsided had not the Cougars (2-0, 10-2) struggled at the free-throw line where they made just 15 of 36 shots.
“I bet we also missed 15 layups in the first half alone,” Dutcher said. “We just could not put the ball in the hole.”
Even so, Upper Lake had the game well in hand by halftime with a 27-10 lead. It was 48-16 going to the fourth quarter.
Kenny Hodges and Ray Moran led the Cougars with 10 points apiece and Colton Goetjen just missed a double-double with nine points and 12 rebounds.
“We’ll need to play better in our next two games if we want to win,” Dutcher said with an eye toward a Thursday home game against Rincon Valley Christian and a Saturday road game against Roseland University Prep in Santa Rosa.
