ARCATA — Gus Schillinger likes where the Kelseyville High School defense is right now, but the offense is another story altogether.
“You’re not going to win any high school games scoring 15 points in a half,” Schillinger said on Wednesday as the Knights dropped a 55-38 non-league varsity boys basketball decision to the Arcata Tigers at Arcata High School. “We need to improve on offense. On defense I feel like the effort is there.”
Playing without one of their top scorers, 6-foot-3 post Josh Hodson (out sick), didn’t help the Knights’ cause, but Schillinger said the Knights simply didn’t take advantage of those opportunities that did present themselves throughout the course of the game.
“We missed too many shots,” Schillinger said, pointing to a 15-point first half.
Neither team did much on offense in the first two quarters. In fact, Schillinger said both teams were scoreless for nearly a five-minute stretch in the second period. Arcata began to find the range late in the quarter and hit a late 3-pointer to open up a 22-15 halftime lead.
The Knights ran into foul trouble in the second half and had to back off defensively, which in turn hurt the offense, according to Schillinger.
Arcata pushed its lead to 38-26 by the end of the third quarter.
While the Knights were without big man Hodson, they did welcome Clear Lake High transfer Joey Mendonca to the floor although the 6-3 junior forward went scoreless in his first game of the season. Schillinger said part of that was his fault as he didn’t involve Mendonca in the offense as much as he would have liked.
“I need to do a better job with that,” Schillinger said.
Kelseyville (2-7) wraps up its preseason with three games next week in the Fort Bragg Tournament. The Knights draw St. Bernard of Eureka in a first-round game on Dec. 27. The tournament runs through Dec. 29.
Arcata also won the junior varsity game on Wednesday, beating Kelseyville 55-44 despite 17 points and four 3-pointers by Cory Holt and 10 points and three 3-pointers by Jake Keithly.
In other non-league boys action Wednesday:
Middletown 56, El Molino 53
At Forestville, the Middletown Mustangs survived a physical battle to beat the El Molino Lions.
“It was a back-and-forth game, a very, very physical game,” Middletown head coach G.J. Rockwell said.
Noah Brown’s half-court 3-pointer with no time left on the clock gave Middletown a 30-27 halftime lead and the momentum created by that shot seemed to carry over into the second half, according to Rockwell.
“We came out in the second half and played pretty well,” he said.
The Mustangs (6-4) took a 48-41 lead into the fourth quarter and held off the Lions down the stretch.
Andreas Cervantes’ double-double of 13 points and 14 rebounds, both team highs, propelled the Mustangs, who have their full team together for only a handful of practices because of Middletown’s deep run into the sectional football playoffs.
“I think we’ve had five practices and four games together,” Rockwell said of his full compliment of players. “We’re trying to get our continuity, trying to get our rotations figured out. I see some good things, but then there are two or three minutes where it looks like we’re trying to figure it out out there.”
Brown finished with 12 points and Will Chastain added 11.
Middletown is scheduled to host Credo in a non-league game Friday at 3:30 p.m.
In JV action, the Middletown Mustangs outscored El Molino 26-2 in the second quarter en route to a 52-21 victory.
“We were flat in the first quarter,” Middletown coach Jon Hoogendoorn said of the 9-5 lead the Mustangs (6-3) held after the opening period. “We mixed up the lineup a little bit (in the second quarter), nothing drastic. And we started to hit some shots.”
Lucas Dacosta’s 13 points sparked the Mustangs while Benji Vazquez added nine. Other top scorers were Luke Hoogendoorn with seven points and Greyson Rockwell with six.
“They played hard,” Hoogendoorn said of his team’s performance.
Middletown’s next scheduled game isn’t until Jan. 2 at home against Cloverdale, the North Central League I opener for both teams.
