LAKE COUNTY — In a varsity girls basketball contest matching first-year coaches, the Middletown Mustangs rallied from 15 points down to beat the Kelseyville Knights 58-54 in the North Central League I opener for both teams, a game played nearly a year ago today in Middletown.
Until the COVID-19-delayed 2020-21 sports season starts, the Lake County Record-Bee will take a look back at the local sports happenings of a year ago and the teams and athletes who were making the headlines.
Varsity girls basketball
Led by head coach Skyler Olsen, Kelseyville used a 15-0 run to open up a 29-14 lead against Middletown, but head coach Andy Brown then watched his Mustangs go on a 17-0 run. The back-and-forth game was ultimately decided at the free-throw line where Middletown went 11-for-18 in the fourth quarter to secure the victory.
The win, the first of 11 for Middletown during its 14-game NCL I schedule, pushed the Mustangs above the .500 mark as they improved to 6-5.
“I was thinking I needed a new hobby,” Brown said in evaluating both his coaching and the play of the Mustangs in the early going. “We were making mistakes everywhere. We need to do everything better.”
And Middletown did in the second half.
Senior Abbey Brown’s 22 points powered the Mustangs while teammate Sophie Kucer added 10 more. Kelseyville had three players score in double digits led by Ryann Taylor’s 14 points. Sam Carter added 13 and Allison Bryant had 10. Carter went 9-for-12 at the free-throw line.
In other varsity girls basketball action, Sydney Howe poured in 20 points, including a pair of 3-pointers, to power the Clear Lake Cardinals past a strong Pierce team, 62-57, in non-league action at Arbuckle.
Clear Lake squared its tough preseason schedule at 4-4 with a most satisfying victory as the Cardinals avenged a 50-35 loss to the same Bears teams earlier in the season at the Pierce Tournament.
Howe’s 3-pointer with a minute remaining in the game sealed the victory.
“She busted her butt,” Clear Lake first-year head coach said of the overall play of his sophomore point guard, who also was charged with guarding Pierce’s top player.
Rylie Mix added 12 points in the Cardinals’ victory while Joy Ingalls and Shaelyn McIntire had nine apiece.
Varsity boys basketball
In another NCL I opener, the Clear Lake varsity boys began their march to a second straight undefeated league title with a 61-42 mauling of the St. Helena Saints at Lakeport.
“To be honest, we did’t play particularly well, we were a little sloppy with the ball,” Clear Lake head coach Scott De Leon said. “Jaron (Mertle) kind of carried us.”
Mertle, the team’s standout senior center, had a big night with 22 points and 12 rebounds.
Clear Lake led 13-4 after one quarter and continued to pull away after that.
Tyler Cerini added 10 points in the win.
One night later, the Cardinals came back to beat St. Bernard’s (Eureka) 74-38 in non-league action at Lakeport. De Leon said Clear Lake was “irritated” by the talk of some of the St. Bernard’s players in the first half and the back-and-forth comments between players were a distraction to the Cardinals in the first half even though they had a 37-28 lead by halftime.
“St. Bernard’s is a pretty chippy team, pretty physical,” De Leon said. “They hung with us in the first half, but we weren’t playing our game. I told them, ‘Enough of that,’ at halftime. ‘We need to get to doing what we do.’ And we did.”
The halftime pep talk worked as Clear Lake outscored St. Bernard’s 37-10 in the second half.
Mertle’s double-double of 19 points and 12 rebounds led Clear Lake. Cerini just missed a double-double of his own with 10 points and nine rebounds. Darius Ford and Travis Howe added 11 points apiece.
In other varsity boys basketball action, Middletown upended Kelseyville 71-62 in the league opener for both teams.
Sammy Cervantes led a balanced Middletown attack with 18 points, Will Chastain added 17, Andres Cervantes had 15 and Jimmy Rockwell 13. For Kelseyville, Bodhi Baird scored 19 of his 25 points in the first half and teammate Joey Mendonca finished with 19.
