ST. HELENA — When the St. Helena Saints put the finishing touches on their come-from-behind 54-52 North Central League I win over the Kelseyville Knights on Monday in varsity boys basketball action at St. Helena, Kelseyville head coach Oscar Lopez wasn’t around to see it.
“I’m still kind of laughing about it,” Lopez said after picking up back-to-back technical fouls and being ejected with 30 seconds remaining. “I’ve never heard a crowd cheer so hard in my life.”
Lopez said he had simply had enough with the officiating, including a backcourt violation call that Lopez said was the result of a St. Helena player knocking the ball away from a Kelseyville player into the backcourt where the Knights retrieved it.
The Saints made two technical free throws, which turned out to be the difference in the game. They also hit two big 3-pointers in the final minutes to erase a Kelseyville lead that had been as much as 10 points at halftime.
“We just turned the ball over too much and ran out of gas,” Lopez said. “We’re still trying to find our legs (after a three-week COVID-19 layoff earlier this month).”
Kelseyville’s 34-24 halftime lead began to melt away in the third quarter when the Saints outscored the Knights 16-8 to close to 42-40 entering the final period.
Jake Keithly led the Knights with 15 points, including a 7-for-10 night from the free-throw line, while Zack Cumins scored 11 of his season-high 13 points in the first half. Luke Watkins added 12 points.
“Cumins played very well for us with a breakout game, he really stepped up,” Lopez said.
The Knights are on the road Tuesday night to play Lower Lake at 7 p.m. The varsity girls play at 5:30 p.m. There are no JV games.
St. Helena beat Kelseyville 54-51 in the JV game.
In other boys action Monday:
Lower Lake at RUP, ppd.
At Santa Rosa, a scheduled NCL I varsity game between the Lower Lake Trojans and Roseland University Prep Knights had to be postponed because of a power outage at the RUP gym.
“We heard a loud pop and everything shut off,” Lower Lake head coach Jay Jakubowski said as the Trojans were on the floor warming up when the lights went out. “We were about three minutes into warmups.”
The two teams remained on the floor until 7:30 p.m., the scheduled tip-off time, but power had not been restored.
“They said it might be until 9 p.m. before the power was back on,” Jakubowski said.
Lower Lake’s JVs won 46-39 in overtime in the early game.
The Trojans are home Tuesday night to play Kelseyville. Varsity girls action tips off at 5:30 p.m. followed by the varsity boys at 7 p.m. There are no JV games.
Middletown 52, Clear Lake 44 (OT)
At Lakeport, in a JV boys game, Oscar Cruz hit a clutch free throw to send the game into overtime and then scored eight of his team-leading 17 points in the extra period as the Middletown Mustangs beat the Clear Lake Cardinals in NCL I action. The scheduled varsity boys game at Middletown was postponed because of COVID-19.
“Cruz really came through in that overtime,” Middletown head coach Jake Diehl said. “I did get on him early in the game and he responded.”
Clear Lake missed a 3-pointer in the final seconds of regulation, a shot Cardinals head coach Shady Cerezo said he thought was going in.
“It was a little short, it just needed a little more legs to make it,” Cerezo said.
Middletown outscored Clear Lake 10-2 in the overtime, by which time by the Cardinals had lost their two big men to fouls. A third player fouled out in the overtime, leaving Clear Lake with just four players.
“We were playing four on five there at the end,” Cerezo said.
Graden Greer and Peyton Portlock led the Cardinals with 12 points while Liam Orr had 11. Greer was the only one of those three still on the floor by game’s end.
“We suited up seven and they had 14, so they pretty much outlasted us,” Cerezo said. “I was looking down my bench and there was no one there. I was thinking about asking people in the stands for help.”
Cerezo said he had nothing but praise for his team’s effort.
“Considering how shorthanded we were, we pushed them (Mustangs) as hard as we could. I told them not to hang their heads. I’m proud of them.”
Brandon Costlow had 13 points for Middletown while Dom Williams added eight, including two 3-pointers, and Cooper Johnson had seven.
“We were in command of the game almost the entire time, but then we got away from what we were doing best and Clear Lake went up on us by three,” Diehl said. “But we battled back and pulled the thing out.”
Middletown plays three more times this week. The Mustangs are home Wednesday against Kelseyville, on the road Friday against Cloverdale, and home Saturday against Willits.
Clear Lake’s JV boys and girls play Tuesday at Cloverdale. Both of Clear Lake’s varsity clubs are sidelined with COVID-19 until the end of the week.
St. Vincent 55, Upper Lake 17
At Petaluma, in a JV-only game, the Upper Lake Cougars fell 55-17 to the St. Vincent Mustangs in non-league action.
“They’re good, very disciplined,” Upper Lake head coach Thomas Santana said of the Mustangs.
Connor Byrd led Upper Lake with six points and Jonathan Barnes had four.
Santana divided his 10 players into five-man units, each playing four minutes before the other group rotated into the game.
“They had fun,” Santana said of his players.
Upper Lake’s JV boys and girls play Credo in Rohnert Park on Thursday. The JV girls tip off at 3:30 p.m. with the JV boys to follow.
